


The Willow Key

by chains_archivist



Category: The Key Game (Official)
Genre: Boys in Chains, Key Game, M/M, Slaves, Yaoi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-09
Updated: 2015-04-08
Packaged: 2018-03-21 23:54:32
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 36,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3707867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chains_archivist/pseuds/chains_archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>by Talya Firedancer</p><p>A reckless non-human wins a key in a high stakes card game, giving him ownership of a bitter, suspicious key. Their meeting will change both their lives irrevocably....</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Description of the Willow Key

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Dusk, the archivist: this work was originally archived at [Boys in Chains](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Boys_in_Chains), which opened in 2000 as a multifandom archive for both fiction and art, but then sadly went offline in 2005. To bring the archive back, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in December 2014. Open Doors [posted an announcement](http://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/1832) and e-mailed all creators about the move, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this author, please [contact the Open Doors committee](http://transformativeworks.org/contact/open%20doors).

**The Description of the Willow Key**  
  
Name: Doesn't have one, answers to Willow, after his key, or Slave.   
  
Appearance: Albino. White skin and knee-length long hair kept in hundreds of thin braids. Black markings have been tattooed onto the skin to resemble willow bark. Red eyes. Medium height, with a thin, delicate build that gives the illusion of fragility. Actually much stronger than he looks. Mostly wears a vest and loincloth made of pale grey leather and grey sandals. Low pain tolerance.   
  
Personality: Openly hostile. Unfriendly, cold, and bitter. Suspicious of everyone, and ready to believe the worst of anyone. That is, until he gets drunk. When drunk, he shows that he is actually very sad and very frightened. He's also willing to do anything in that state. The hobbies he enjoys when no one is looking are reading trashy romance novels, painting, wood carving, and cuddling his teddy bear, Pookie. (When the master is around or awake, Pookie is hidden under the bed.) Doesn't believe in the existance of love or kindness of any sort, but still likes to read about it.   
  
Background: Born in the Palace, he's never been outside. He's never had a kind master, as he's very popular with the SM group. He thinks the entire world is like them. He's been taught to insult the master first off to make them angry so that they are more violent, and thus get more pleasure out of hurting him. His last master left him in traction for two months.   
  
Room: The floor has black carpeting and the walls are painted black with white depictions of willow  
branches. Chains and rings are set in the walls for virtually any position of bondage. The chains themselves have engraved willows on them. The bed is made with white leather sheets and a black satin cover with willow branches embroidered in silver thread. Also with rings and chains attached. White door with black markings along the back wall leads to a closet with any other accessories a master would want. The bathroom is made from onyx and marble, with willow mosaics along the wall. Once again, fitted with chains and rings. Especially around the bathtub, which can easily fit three people.

 

 


	2. Chapter 1

Fixing a forbidding expression on his handsome - almost beautiful - face, Valirion Morgan glared over the gilded edges of the cards at his opponent. This game was more than high stakes. With his horse, his extra cash, and his sword in the pot, it was an absolutely crucial game. His hand fell to the sword at his side as he narrowed his honey-gold eyes at his opponent, Delmar Briggs. The sword was a family heirloom, and beyond being destitute if he lost it and the rest of his goods, his fathers would thoroughly thrash him when their paths crossed again!   
  
"I'll see your sword," Delmar rumbled, unbuckling his own scabbard and tossing the weapon on the table, "and raise you...this." He opened his meaty palm and something tumbled onto the scuffed wood with a dull click. Valirion blinked. He honestly hadn't expected Delmar to push the already-high stakes game into absurdity. "What is it?" Either he was really, really confident, or he was maneuvering towards something, and had to keep Val betting.   
  
"Are you a simp, or what?" A rough hand slapped his shoulder. Coran's voice in his ear. Val twisted away from the foul breath. "It's a Key."   
  
"So it is." Val stared at it. A simple wooden key, its pale material twisted into complicated scrollwork at the base. The Key was so intricate, it was obvious it opened only one door. "What about it?"   
  
Laughter jostled around him. "Hear that? Doesn't know what a Key is!"   
  
Val was irritated. He didn't spend much time in big cities, certainly, so it was easy to gain a reputation as a provincial youko, but that was really unnecessary. He pushed back his shoulder-length black hair and glowered over his cards at Delmar.   
  
"It's a Key to the Palace," Coran said at his ear, gracing him with another blast of bad breath and flecks of spittle. "A pleasure slave," he clarified unnecessarily. "With those cards, kid, I'd meet his stakes."   
  
"No one asked you, Coran," Val gritted. He turned his attention to Delmar again and spoke louder. "How do you expect me to 'see' this, Delmar? What kind of value are you placing on this..." he extended his senses, determining the composition of the wooden object, "...this willow Key, here?"   
  
Delmar raised a brow, grinning all over his fat face, and Val felt that sickening sensation of being maneuvered. *This* was why Delmar had pushed the stakes so ridiculously high. "You, Val," Delmar said clearly. "That Key is good for a month. If I win, I get you for that month, and I can sell the Key." He looked around his circle of cronies. "Good deal all around."   
  
They laughed with him.   
  
Val seethed. It had to be a pretty good hand if Delmar thought he could sucker a youko at cards. He looked at his own cards, fingering their gilt edges, tapping them thoughtfully on the battered tabletop. Delmar eyed them, traces of that smug grin on his lips still. So very confident. Was he cheating? Fine, then.   
  
"I'll meet your Key, then," he spoke up clearly, pressing his sense outward again. There were no hidden cards. "With myself, for a month."   
  
Delmar's small black eyes glittered with excitement, and the roar from the small crowd surrounding their table drowned out all other sounds in the pub.   
  
"Call," Delmar crowed, tossing his hand on the table. The Fire, the Earth, the Wind, the Water, the Tree. "Straight, youko Valirion." All were difficult cards to obtain.   
  
Valirion smiled a tiny smile. One by one, he pitched his cards onto the chipped bar table. The Queen of Light. The Queen of Dark. The Lord of Chaos. The Lord of Order. The Time. In a deck of a hundred and four cards, almost impossible to obtain. "Full house, Delmar. You lose." His eyes were like ice.   
  
The uproar was deafening.   
  
Under the cover of the excitement, Valirion scooped the pot into the sack he kept handy whenever he won a game of Crow, including Delmar's heavy sword. Maybe he could sell it. Coran slipped into the place he left in the crowd, covering his swift departure as he'd been paid to do beforehand. Playing a game of Crow was always risky, but in a city like this Austen, he was always careful to take precautions. By the time Delmar had recovered from his stunned immobility, he would probably try to recover his wagered treasures by force. That was an awful lot of men for Val to take on himself.   
  
Whistling a cheerful tune, Val slipped back to the place he'd left his horse, a few streets down. A couple more bars in the city, and he'd be leaving Austen with a small fortune. Not quite as legendary as the thefts of his father Tsuyoshi, but more than respectable.   
  
He had slipped, almost automatically, the Key made of willow into his pocket. It wasn't until several days later that it crossed his mind.   
  
***   
  
Willow ran a tongue over his pale colorless lips, turning the page. He sprawled on his milk-white bare belly, feet crossed in the air behind him, crimson eyes following the thread of the story eagerly. Love at first sight. *A jolt traveled up his spine with the most sublime sort of shock as their eyes made fast upon one another what they both knew to be true. Her eyes were clear blue panels that admitted him passage to the soul. He knew at that moment she had taken possession of his heart.* Hmph. Maybe it only happened between girls and boys, that instantaneous prickle of... knowing. More than mutual attraction; soul-bonding in a snap. Willow read on. His free time was scarce and precious.   
  
A knock came at the door of the Willow suite, making the pale-skinned boy grumble and place a frayed scrap of silk in the book to mark his place. "Oh well," he scowled at Pookie, shoving the time-worn bear under a cluster of pillows, "I already know they're going to have sex inside twenty pages, anyhow." Formula romance. Predictable but horribly addictive.   
  
Willow got up with languid grace, tossing a handful of ice-pale, very long thin braids over his shoulder. They slithered down his back, joining the main mass of braids. "Yes?" he prompted, moving beside the locked door. He couldn't open it. Only one man could open it - not even servants. *Especially* not servants.   
  
A panel slid aside, the one used to serve his meals when there was no Master in residence. Willow held himself rigid and carefully expressionless.   
  
"Oh, it's you," he said in disgust, relaxing when his 'visitor' was revealed to be none other than Kyo, a flunky half-youko of the palace. Not even good enough to rate Key; just a petty whore and errand boy. "What do you want, little vixen?"   
  
If Kyo'd had proper youko ears, they would've flattened against his skull. "You don't have to be a jerk, Willow," he whined.   
  
"I don't like you," Willow said bluntly, scowling. No reason to be nice.   
  
"Fine," Kyo sniffed. "I'm here to inform you that your Key has been sold again, and you're to ready the suite. Get yourself ready, too."   
  
"All right," Willow nodded, "now scram." He wished he could slam the panel shut in Kyo's face, but it could only be handled from the corridor side.   
  
Kyo's eyes flashed. "You can't tell me what to do. You're only a Key, and I gave you your orders."   
  
Willow twisted his lips in a mocking expression. "You're not my Master. You're no kind of master, Kyo, and you never will be," he taunted the half-youko. "You don't have the balls to top anything."   
  
Kyo's thin face flushed with anger, and the boy stamped a foot. "Just so you know," he growled, running his fingers through his long, silky hair, pushing it back with an impatient movement, "your new Master should be here any day."   
  
Shrugging, Willow turned his back on Kyo. He was used to a parade of Masters. He wondered if this one would be as easy to piss off as the last two. He hoped not; he liked a challenge.   
  
"One day that nasty mouth of yours is going to get you killed," Kyo called after him, swinging the panel shut.   
  
"I look forward to it," Willow replied without turning. "But it won't be you who does it, Kyo."   
  
He looked around the suite. It was in decent shape. While he was recovering from the last 'tender ministrations' of his most recent master - the man had put him in traction for two months - they had gone over the Willow suite thoroughly and restored it, each chain polished until it gleamed, well-oiled, all implements of pleasure cared for. The black walls with their white silhouettes of trees made it almost seem as if he moved in a stark forest of willows. He supposed the room was beautiful. His namesake was everywhere - the walls, the coverlet with its embroidered silver willow branches, the mosaic in the bathroom...   
  
Dismissing his surroundings, he changed into a clean set of clothing, a brief grey loincloth of butter-soft leather and a matching leather vest that revealed his navel and pale-skinned arms. He lined his eyes with kohl, making his scarlet eyes more startling in his white-skinned face. Willow wasn't just a member of some pale-skinned race; he was a true albino, something most of his masters took to be a sign of weakness, of recessivity. The white skin was contrasted shockingly with the black patterns that had been tattooed onto him, not only a mark of slavery but the whole resembling exotic willow bark.   
  
Willow smirked at his startling-white reflection. He was strong enough to take a whole lot of damage, even if he didn't like how it felt. Those tattoes had meant days of searing pain, followed by the raw agony of healing flesh. And though he despised the markings, they were part of what made him one of the most expensive slaves in the Palace.   
  
Returning to the bedroom, he scanned it over with critical eyes. He replaced Pookie in the hidden compartment under the bed, smoothing over the battered bear with a light touch. He'd had it since... he didn't remember. Maybe he'd been more than just a Key, once, but damned if he could remember a time before his slavery. As far as he knew, he'd been born in the Palace.   
  
Folding his legs under him gracefully, he pulled out his current trashy romance and found his place. No reason to waste this free time, before the Master came.   
  
***   
  
"Shit," Val muttered, examining the contents of his latest winning. He was in deep trouble, if he couldn't make up for yesterday's losses. Overconfidence had led him to a richer section of town, and he'd gambled away most of this city's winnings with one badly-dealt hand of Crow.   
  
He glanced over his shoulder. Delmar was still looking for him, too, which wasn't helping matters any. If Val didn't want to end up bashed over the head some night to wake up in wards that sealed his power, he would have to get out of the city soon. Unfortunately for him, he hadn't inherited his father Ahrin's offensive magics. His powers were pure youko, an affinity for plants and metals and living things, with some mind-magic thrown in, strengthened somewhat by his father Ahrin's human blood. While his powers were useful in other situations, they did him no good in the city, in a fight.   
  
He couldn't trust Coran anymore, because that man's only loyalty was to money. If Delmar wanted to find him badly enough, he'd spend the money for it. Letting Coran know anything about his location was a bad thing.   
  
"There he is - hey, there!"   
  
The shouts startled Val out of his furious introspection. His head snapped up and he spotted them - three roughly-garbed men brandishing daggers. One of them had a coil of rope at his belt. Ooh, shit, they must have orders to *catch* him, not kill him. He knew what that meant. Val grabbed his pack and broke into a run.   
  
"Get him!"   
  
Shit. He was out of options. Maybe it was time to leave Austen. With the swift grace only a youko possessed, Val eluded his would-be captors and dodged up the narrow, twisty streets of the poorer section of Austen. He'd left his horses back at the inn, along with the rest of his belongings. Most of his valuables were on him; the money jingling in his pocket, the sword at his side; since it seemed his very freedom was at stake, he could abandon what was left back at the inn with no more than a wince over the setback. To a youko, freedom was more important than anything; belongings could be re-acquired at any time.   
  
Groping in his pockets for a few of the smoke-bombs he kept there, Val's hand brushed over a smooth carved shape. The Key.   
  
Hey, the Key! His pursuers couldn't follow him there. If he was fast enough, they wouldn't even realize he was there. And while Val didn't go in for that sort of thing, and had been hoping to *sell* the willow Key before he left town, it would provide a month-long sanctuary for him and he could send the Palace's servants to pick up his belongings from the inn. This was his best hope. At the very least, it would buy him enough time to come up with a plan.   
  
"There!"   
  
Val's dark head jerked up, startled. He was running directly into the arms of another clutch of pursuers, similarly equipped with daggers and rope.   
  
"Don't hurt him...too badly," the man in front leered at him.   
  
Val's hand closed on a few of the smoke bombs he'd been looking for. He backed up, letting his other hand fall to the sword at his side. Damn it, at times like this, having a partner would be a really good thing. He tossed the bombs, in front and in back, as the man took a menacing step forward.   
  
"Shit!"   
  
They cursed and coughed as gray clouds mushroomed up from the round little objects. Val grinned and darted for freedom, sidestepping the shadowy shapes. One of them made a wild grab, coughing his lungs out, and Val twisted eel-like under his hands, giving a parting kick that made the man yelp and grab between his legs, then choke on the smoke he'd inhaled.   
  
Val sprinted away, stifling the merry laughter that welled up in him.   
  
His urge to chuckle died in his throat when he considered his options. Delmar was an honorless horse-thief of a man, but he had connections in this town. Holing up somewhere until this blew over was the only way he'd retain his freedom. Would they think to check the Palace? He had to get there quickly, because he was sure that group of men he'd eluded wasn't the only team on the lookout for him. And a tall - for human - black-haired, beautiful man with pointed youko ears and distinctive golden eyes wasn't anything approaching inconspicuous.   
  
He sighed and set out for the Palace, taking a circuitous route that took him over rooftops and through smelly alleyways. The pleasure-house was in the more prosperous section of the red-light district. Its gleaming marble front was a visible sign of the wealthy nature of its clientele. How had a man like Delmar managed to rake up the means to buy a Key here? Perhaps he'd acquired it through shady dealings...yeah, that was more his style.   
  
Val raked back black hair, aware that he looked somewhat bedraggled. He squared his shoulders, taking a look around. There were no signs of trouble on the crowded street. Maybe he really would be able to make it out of Austen without resorting to this. Then again, that sort of thinking could lead him right into a trap.   
  
Besides, he was curious.   
  
He stepped into the building.   
  
***   
  
The atmosphere within was hushed and palatial. The anteroom was large and vaulted, a marble fountain dominating the center of the room, surrounded by low couches and lush plants. Val hitched his pack up and strode over to the desk.   
  
The clerk behind the desk looked up. The man was human, quite ordinary in appearance except for a pair of remarkable turquoise eyes. They contained disdain as they traveled up Val from toes to the tips of his ears.   
  
"May I...help you?" The voice was full of cultured contempt.   
  
Val sighed. As he'd thought, he didn't look like the sort of customer who walked in here off the street. He'd hardly had time to bathe himself and look presentable. In answer, he dug into his pocket and dropped the intricately carved key onto the counter.   
  
"I'm here for my Key," he said simply.   
  
The man's eyes widened. "The Willow Key," he noted, a certain amount of respect entering his voice. He gave Val another assessing look, and his face seemed to relax, perhaps looking past the dusty disheveled part and seeing the youko beauty that so many humans found irresistible. "Very well, sir, I'll have someone show you the way." He picked up a golden bell from the desk and set it ringing.   
  
A dark head peeked around the corner. "You rang?" a honey-smooth tenor inquired.   
  
"Kyo, this gentleman has come to redeem the Willow Key," the clerk murmured. "Show him to the suite."   
  
"Yes, sir," the voice affirmed, and a young boy emerged from behind a column.   
  
Val took one look at him and his ears flattened against his glossy dark hair.   
  
The servant was clearly half-youko, with his amber eyes flickering between Val and the floor. His hair was long and fiery-red, and while he didn't have prominent fox ears sticking up from his head, nor a tail flicking nervously, there was a fey quality in his face and the unmistakable taint of the half-breed about him. Val's lip curled.   
  
Kyo's eyes widened apprehensively, and he took a half-step back.   
  
The half-youko was the product of a union between a pure youko, either a female or male, and a human outside of a proper Bonded relationship. When a youko Bonded, it was for life - and the product of their unions was always full-blooded youko, whether their partner was youko or human. This Kyo was a child of a loveless, un-Bonded union, and it was reflected in his impure blood. Valirion and his siblings were all full youko, because his youko father Tsuyoshi had a true Bond with his human father Ahrin.   
  
As for the mechanics of the birthing...well, youko were *different.*   
  
The boy turned and began to move off, casting an apprehensive glance over his shoulder. Val controlled a growl. It wasn't the boy's fault - there was surely a youko locked up somewhere within this complex, and the child Kyo was the result of that imprisonment. His hands had curled into fists.   
  
"This way, sir," Kyo mumbled, his tone submissive. Another wide-eyed amber glance flashed back at him. "Y-you're a real youko." There was wonder in his tone.   
  
"Yes," Val said, tone biting. "Wasn't your parent one, too?"   
  
"I don't remember my mother." Kyo's tone was expressionless and subdued, delivered in the mechanical tones of a servant.   
  
Val couldn't be angry at this boy, but he was filled with rage towards the Palace who would force a child of a loveless union on any youko. If there had been love in the joining, or any hint of a Bond, Kyo would be a full-blooded youko. It was even more of an abomination that a youko female had been abused - female youko were incredibly scarce, numbering one to every hundred males. Kyo was walking proof of a perversion within this place. Val was beginning to think this was not such a good idea.   
  
Kyo led him on through vaulted halls covered with tapestries. They were works of art, mostly erotic and intended to enhance the anticipation of those walking within these walls. Val's boots were soundless over plush carpet. He ignored his palatial surroundings, most of his concentration focused on how he would leave this place without encountering Delmar, and how he could find out if the youko female was still here - so he could break her out.   
  
"This is it, sir," Kyo stopped beside a door carved with an elegant relief of a willow tree. His eyes were downcast.   
  
Val paused before the door, studying the half-youko who determinedly avoided his gaze.   
  
"Sir?" the boy said finally.   
  
"It's not your fault," Val said at last, tipping the child's face up with one finger. Kyo blinked at him, a blank expression replacing apprehension. Val dug into his pocket and handed him some coins. "Here. Please retrieve my horse and belongings from the Blue Apple, or have someone do it if you're not allowed."   
  
Kyo gulped and nodded, then he retreated up the corridor.   
  
Val smiled faintly. Then he pulled the carved willow key from his pocket, and fitted it in the lock. Time to see what he'd gotten himself into.   
  
***   
  
Willow was becoming bored.   
  
He had been in a state of tense readiness for the new Master for days now. Since the man hadn't shown up yet - he knew it would be a man; his Key was never sold to women - he'd been reading his romance novels to pass the time, prepared to toss it under the bed at the slightest sign. This waiting was getting old.   
  
He rolled over and pushed the book under the bed, hiding it under a loose jumble of dark scarves and extra pillows. Everything was in readiness. The toys were stowed neatly and the chains gleamed, the lube was ready at hand; Willow was garbed and groomed in a fashion that screamed 'take me!'   
  
He ran hands over his flat, tattooed pale belly, scowling at the likeness of tree bark. Then he cocked his head, hearing movement in the hallway. Was it finally time?   
  
The lock clicked. Willow sat up straight, adjusting his pale grey vest and easy-access loin-cloth; tossing a cascade of knee-length braids over his shoulder, he fixed challenging crimson eyes on the door. His Master was unlocking the suite.   
  
A man stepped through, and Willow had to adjust his eyes *up* -- the new Master was well over six feet tall. He'd never had one...this tall before. It should be interesting.   
  
He turned, and their eyes met. A prickle ran up Willow's spine. His red eyes turned flinty - what a ridiculous time to be recalling something from his trashy romance novels. The man was beautiful, his long oval-shaped face tanned with sun, framed with shoulder-length black hair that looked soft to the touch. Only the shape of his jaw prevented him from femininity. The eyes that bored intently into Willow's were an unusual shade of topaz, almost golden, very quick and intelligent. Wait...only one race had golden eyes...   
  
He wasn't a man. A pair of dark black ears rose from the sleek black hair. Youko. Willow controlled his instinctive glare. He hadn't had many non-human masters, and no youko. Until this one. His eyes widened slightly. The swishing tip of a tail curled around one black-clad thigh. That had to make things... interesting.   
  
Willow rose from the bed, feeling smaller than his average height. Damn the man for his sheer... presence. "You're a pretty one," he said coldly, maintaining his direct eye contact as he swayed closer to his new Master. "I wonder if your looks tell a lie about your posture in bed." He stood and waited for the inevitable blow, face tightening.   
  
It never came.   
  
Raising crimson eyes, he met the Master's gaze again. The youko's dark eyes were fixed on him, puzzled. Not angry, but he looked... startled? Then the youko's brow lifted and his expression turned wryly amused.   
  
"You're a rude one," the Master responded, brushing past Willow and walking into the suite. A jolt leapt up his arm at the contact and he stepped aside with a muttered curse, glaring after the youko. Was this some kind of inhuman witchery? "I thought pleasure slaves were supposed to be more... pleasant."   
  
"I'm here for you to fuck me," Willow responded, "not to make conversation." If he was offensive enough from the start, he'd learned, they usually got right down to basics. In other words, chaining Willow up to the big bed with those willow-engraved chains and getting their money's worth of S&M. The more offensive he was, the more they punished him, the better they liked it.   
  
Not that Willow ever saw a cent of it, but he hoped some day one would go too far and kill him.   
  
"Well," the Master stood, hands on his lissome hips, surveying the suite, "if we're going to be here for a month together, we're going to have to talk eventually."   
  
Willow was floored. A... month? Had he heard correctly? No one had ever bought his Key for that long. Could his body take a month's worth of steady damage?   
  
The Master turned and looked at him. "Close your mouth."   
  
*There* was something Willow hadn't heard before.   
  
"You look like a landed fish," the Master continued. He was amused. Why? "My name is Valirion Morgan."   
  
"Why does it matter?" Willow rejoined acerbically.   
  
"You certainly like to get down to basics, don't you?" Master Valirion narrowed his eyes. "Stop being such an ass; I'm not going to hit you." He went back to looking at the suite, then walked towards the bed. His black tail switched behind him, brushing against the backs of his thighs. Willow wondered if it was as silky as it looked.   
  
If that statement had been meant to make him relax, it had the opposite effect. Willow stiffened, regarding the Master warily. "Then what do you want me to do?"   
  
"Well, you can call me Val," the youko responded, "and I think I'm going to take a nap. It's been a tense week."   
  
Willow's brow crinkled in puzzlement. He was almost outraged. The youko wasn't going to beat him like he'd earned, or tie him up, or start the cycle of fucking and beating and oblivion that he was accustomed to - practically felt entitled to, by now. It was his *job.*   
  
He was just going to *sleep.*   
  
"You're not going to fuck me." It was a statement, not a question.   
  
Master Valirion sat on the bed, tested it by bouncing up and down a couple of times, giving Willow a boyish, delighted grin, then climbed fully onto it, moving into a reclining position with a sensuous wriggle. "In a word, no."   
  
"But-"   
  
"Not right now," Master Valirion lifted a hand. "Don't be so impatient. What do I call you, anyhow?"   
  
"Willow," Willow answered sullenly.   
  
Valirion astonished him with a peal of laughter. He hadn't heard... it was a *real* laugh, no malice or cruelty in it, something he hadn't heard in... Willow didn't remember. His memory was a box with a faulty latch that slammed shut all too frequently.   
  
"Willow... that's very obvious; I should have guessed," Master Valirion chuckled. He patted the black coverlet near him. "Join me?"   
  
Willow stared at him. "Why?" He was confused. He'd never *liked* anyone before. He didn't think he had, anyhow. But he'd read about it, and it seemed like a nice thing - but it wasn't something that was supposed to happen to *him.* He was just a Key. He wasn't supposed to like his Master, just please him.   
  
"Why not?" Valirion countered.   
  
"But you're not going to have sex with me," Willow said stubbornly. Was this some kind of trick? He should resist him - perhaps that was the excuse the Master needed to beat him, and begin the rest of the sequence he was familiar with.   
  
Master Valirion huffed. "Willow, let me tell you a secret." He patted the bed again. "You have to come here for me to tell you."   
  
Suspicious, Willow approached the bed, climbed on, and curled up near the youko. He expected to have his hair grabbed or to be pinched or slapped any moment. There were plenty of chains handy, too.   
  
The Master put his mouth near Willow's ear. "Sex isn't all there is to life," he whispered.   
  
Willow turned to give him an incredulous look. This was coming from a Master?? But Master Valirion had already put his head on one of the pillows, expression dreamy and peaceful.   
  
Damn the youko. He *was* going to sleep.   
  
Willow settled himself against the pillows and glared at the lovely oval of Valirion's face. He was already bitterly disappointed with this new Master. Then he shifted his thoughts. That just meant this Master would be more of a challenge than the rest, to piss off completely... to induce him to unleash from his control and loose his sexuality and violence onto the Key he'd paid handsomely for. This could be interesting, after all. 


	3. Chapter 2

Valirion Morgan yawned, stretched luxuriously, and kept his eyes closed, coming slowly back to his surroundings. The bed was much softer than he was used to, less lumpy and irregular and, of course, no bedbugs. Ah, yes...he was in the Palace in the red-light district of Austen, avoiding Delmar Briggs' hired men. Much preferable to have a slave than *be* a slave... which meant... Val cracked open one golden eye.   
  
A lithe human boy was curled up on the bed next to him, crimson eyes in the pale face glaring fit to kill. Val ignored the intent and opened both eyes, letting himself admire the slim lines of the smaller body. Willow couldn't be much taller than five and a half feet, and his build was delicate, almost fragile-seeming. His skin was very pale, not quite the color of snow; more like the finest cream. His features were a bit pointed but lovely, not up to 'beauty' but definitely exotic; the eyes that burned like flame were a startling contrast. His hair was kept in a river of milk-white braids, so long they surely passed his waist.   
  
Tattooed over the majority of his body was the mark of a slave, patterned after willow bark. Curious, Val reached out a hand and stroked that pale, branded skin.   
  
Willow jerked under his touch, gaze sharpening murderously.   
  
"Are you going to get to it, after all?" the boy inquired bluntly. "Or are you still too tired to get it up?"   
  
The boy had a nasty mouth on him, Val noted. Then again, he wondered if Willow had been treated with consideration for a single day of his life. Val took stock of his surroundings, golden eyes growing progressively wide. Chains on the carved head of the bed, chains at the foot, whips hanging on the walls plaited to resemble willows... the room was elegantly appointed, and the willow theme prevailed everywhere, but it was obviously geared for a rougher brand of sex than Val had ever gone for. No, he guessed Willow wasn't acquainted with the gentler aspects of sex.   
  
He had to admit the boy quickened a spike of desire in his loins.   
  
Val had redeemed his Key with the best of intentions. It wasn't even his Key, after all, so it shouldn't have been any hardship merely to use the suite as a place to hide for the length of his month, and give the pleasure-slave a rest. He had entered the suite with every intention not to sleep with the Key within, until he'd seen Willow... who was the antithesis of the soft-mannered, obedient pleasure-slave he'd been expecting.   
  
Willow's challenging crimson eyes were still on him. The reed-slender body was tense. He was still expecting to be hit, if Val read his body language correctly.   
  
"I'm not going to hit you," Val growled, rolling up to a sitting position. "I'm going to bathe."   
  
Willow's eyes flashed. "What, aren't you a real man?" he taunted. "That's not what you're here for?"   
  
Val climbed off the immense bed and headed for the bathroom, shedding clothes in his path. "I'm going to pretend you didn't say that," he said calmly. Then he paused and shot a look over his shoulder. Willow had bitten down on his lip and swiftly wiped away the bewildered expression when he caught Val looking. "Join me?" Val invited, soft and suggestive. He didn't go in for rough sex, but...   
  
"Is that an order?" Willow said, chin jutting out challengingly.   
  
Val sighed. "I don't want you to come if you don't want to."   
  
"Fine." Willow pointedly turned his back.   
  
Val stared at him a moment longer, eyes narrowed. Willow was rigid, his whole posture suggesting he expected to be beaten at any moment. He knew what kind of pleasure slave this was, and it sickened him. Willow did stir desire in his body - but it had nothing to do with twisted pleasure!   
  
He'd like to have Willow, but it would be on his terms. And nothing the boy could do or say would provoke him enough to fly into the rage he was so obviously expecting.   
  
Val turned and resumed the walk to the bath, tossing aside his shirt and kicking off his trousers. Somewhere within those moments of assessment, he'd decided he wanted Willow, indeed. His body was calling out that fact with a plaintive clamor that he ignored for the moment. This would be worse than seducing a virgin. Making Willow enjoy what he had in mind would take far more convincing!   
  
The willow motif was strongly present in the bathroom, as well. Against the dark tile that formed a dramatic backdrop to the immense tub, a fragile, beautiful willow tree stretched its branches in gold inlay, a weeping willow streaming against the black tile. Val eyed the bathroom appreciatively. He'd never been in such palatial surroundings before. His fathers had a simple, if very large, country home and he'd never bothered to check out the higher spheres for himself.   
  
Val flicked dark hair over his shoulders and bent forward to turn the water on. He was halted at the curious golden devices. None of them resembled a conventional faucet. Dubiously, he tried out a few of them.   
  
"Ah...Willow, a little help here?"   
  
"What?" the surly voice floated to him.   
  
Val grimaced. "Turn the tub on for me, would you?"   
  
There was a moment of silence. Then the pale-skinned boy appeared in the door, lithe body accentuated by the loincloth and vest - making him look sexy and available, rather than being any concession to modesty. His crimson eyes were incredulous. The cascade of ice-white braids reached down to his knees, Val could see now.   
  
"You're kidding," Willow jeered. "You need some help, country boy?"   
  
Val controlled a flicker of irritation. Willow was only *trying* to goad him into some kind of violent response, he was sure...so there was no point in making one. If he kept up his usual polite, sunny demeanor, it would disarm the boy sooner or later.   
  
"If you would, please."   
  
Rather than moving out of the way as Willow approached the tub, Val stood his ground, forcing the boy to press around his naked leanness to reach the tub controls. Willow's arm brushed against him, then his thigh pressed full-length to Val's. The shock of skin on skin was instant, hot, and stunned Val with its immediacy. Was it merely the circumstances of this odd situation that made him want Willow so much?   
  
Dammit, he hadn't intended to take the boy in the first place! That resolve had melted upon laying eyes on him.   
  
The boy had turned his head away, mouth fallen partly open. His slender body was rigid. Val's scrutiny traveled over him; the boy's hands were trembling. It was the only discomposure he'd shown so far. So Willow had felt that shock too, just as strong.   
  
His body's instincts were urging him to grab Willow and ravish him on the edge of the tub; none of this nonsense about waiting for a better time or trying to seduce a jaded slave into mutual enjoyment.   
  
Willow twisted dials and pushed buttons and water began to gush into the tub, steam rising and curling around them. He backed away immediately, crimson eyes burning with wariness.   
  
This boy? Impossible. Entirely unsuitable...   
  
Val gave Willow a slightly unsteady smile. It had occurred to him just exactly what he was getting into, and part of him was revolting at the notion, and the rest, with youko abandon, didn't care. "Why don't you join me in the tub?"   
  
Willow twitched. "You said I didn't have to."   
  
The boy never used any sort of honorific. If he truly were a pleasure slave for...*this* sort of thing, he would've been beaten dozens of times over by an experienced master. Maybe, Val mused, that was what he was aiming for.   
  
"I changed my mind," Val informed him. "I think I'm going to have to insist."   
  
***   
  
Willow perched uncomfortably on the rim of the tub, eyes roaming over the elegant, luxurious bathroom. Anywhere but the Master. He was an S&M slave, dammit, not some stupid pleasure slave! Was Master Valirion expecting him to wash his hair, or soap him up, or something? He didn't know what to do now that he'd been forced into this situation. So he sat across from his Master in the steaming water, thrust uneasily into a new scenario. What was he supposed to do?   
  
Any time before when he'd shared the tub with his Master, it had nothing whatsoever to do with bathing or pleasure. He'd been taken against the rim, he'd been forced underwater and held struggling, he'd been chained against the side of the tub - his eyes skipped over the willow chains there. He'd had sex in this tub, yes, but as for sitting and just soaking up the steam and heat for the fun of it...this was something he'd never done. So he tucked his legs up under him and sat passively, looking anywhere but this Master.   
  
His mind drifted back to the instant he'd stepped into the tub. More specifically, when he'd stripped down to enter it.   
  
Master Valirion's eyes had been on him, and this was nothing new. He was used to feeling eyes on his body, appraising, assessing.   
  
The vest had dropped to the floor and the Master was settling into the tub and what surprised him was the answering prickle he felt along his skin. As if the eyes moving along his pale, tattooed skin were a physical sensation. Then he'd stripped the loincloth off, and his nerves had leaped with a strange sort of lightning. Master Valirion's eyes had been on him still, and interest had peaked, triggering an answering sensation in his body.   
  
Confused and flustered by the unusual sensation, Willow had climbed into the tub with much hurry and little grace, letting the hot water overwhelm anything else his body might be tempted to feel. His own feelings had nothing to do with what happened in this suite.   
  
Now he tucked his arms around his knees and tried to avoid eye contact. It was disturbing to him because he was used to taking the offense against his master. But taking the offense against Master Valirion did nothing at all...or rather, did disturbing things to his midsection that he wasn't prepared to deal with.   
  
"You're taking all the fun out of my bath, sulking like that," Master Valirion complained. "Why don't you come over to this side?"   
  
"Why don't you make me?" Willow muttered.   
  
"I could," the Master said calmly, reaching out with one long leg and snatching him off balance with a foot. Willow tumbled onto his side, half his head soaked, and he sputtered and glared. "But I'd rather you come because I want you to."   
  
"Then you can wait until the water turns cold," Willow glowered. He was angry. Mostly because a large part of him wanted to join the youko over there. *Youko.* This creature wasn't even human. So why did he want...?   
  
Master Val sighed. "There's no help for it, I guess." Water curled and sloshed in the big tub as the lean frame unfolded and began to move.   
  
"Wh-what are you doing!?" Willow's eyes flew open in panic. He began to retreat and realized it would look ridiculous if the Master chased him around the tub.   
  
"Joining you, since you won't come to my side," the Master said calmly.   
  
A wet, silken mass brushed against his thigh under the water. Willow looked down to see the tail curling over his tattooed skin and it distracted him briefly from the arm that slid around his waist. By the time Willow was ready to bristle defensively, the youko was installed next to him, wet tail draped over his leg, arm hooking him in close.   
  
Now Willow was *really* uncomfortable. This wasn't anything like the treatment he was accustomed to. In an unfamiliar situation, he didn't know how to respond. He sat stiffly, held against the youko's side.   
  
"Why are you doing this?" he asked after several long heartbeats, to prevent himself from getting too comfortable.   
  
The wet soft tail swished over his thigh, doing more odd things to his midsection. Something stirred and tightened low in his belly. Willow squirmed, but Val had a good grip on him.   
  
"Because I want to," Master Valirion answered, quiet but matter-of fact. "Haven't you ever just been held, Willow?"   
  
"No," Willow snapped, tone flat.   
  
The Master sighed. "Then I feel sorry for you." And there was a world of sadness in his voice to back that up.   
  
Willow began to struggle in earnest. "I don't need your pity, youko!" he snarled, striking out. He didn't want it, he despised it, but he'd earned it, hadn't he? That thought deep inside him made him lash out more than anything.   
  
"No," Master Valirion said thoughtfully, "but you do need something."   
  
Willow increased his struggles. That sounded like the prelude to a beating, and his own thrashing about could only increase the Master's enjoyment. This flickered through his head, but it was genuine visceral fear that surged through him to fuel his fighting.   
  
"Oh, stop that!" the Master said irritably, the other arm going around him. It didn't prevent Willow from kicking out with his legs, and spray from their struggles surged up out of the tub. Willow was tucked under the powerful tall body and they went rolling in the water. He held his breath. They broke water again, gasping, and Willow began to thrash again. The Master growled and dunked him, and as he held his breath, he felt the imprint of teeth in his neck. Willow's eyes flew open underwater. The youko fucking BIT him!   
  
Was there such a thing as a were-youko?   
  
He'd gone still with shock, and the youko took advantage of that to twine long limbs around him, effectively chaining them together underwater. The teeth that had clamped on his flesh were joined by a tongue, massaging the hurt away. Just as Willow was beginning to see spots before his eyes, they broke the surface of the water again, the Master hauling him to one of the tub ledges, a leg still locked around him, trapping him.   
  
Willow stared at creamy white flesh and the black tiles beyond the youko's shoulder, feeling Master Val's erection press against his thigh. He was filled with a strange feeling now that he'd actually managed it, inciting the Master to violence - and, from the feel of it, liking it. It was what he'd aimed for, what he'd been trained for, and yet... He supposed he read romance novels because it was nice to see *someone* getting it better, even if he knew it could never be him.   
  
"Sorry," Master Val panted in his ear. "Didn't mean to be so rough." He pulled them up to sitting position in the steaming tub, pulling Willow into his lap. Willow's eyes went huge even as his legs were guided by firm hands to settle around the youko's waist. Master Valirion thought that was rough?   
  
"Now," molten gold eyes were twinkling merrily into his, "since I've proved I'm as good as you at underwater gymnastics, shall we proceed to something more pleasant?"   
  
Willow gave him his best wary, distrustful look that had, in the past, been enough to earn him a whipping or three. Masters loved the excuse that sullen look flashed their way. But he kept forgetting Master Val was different. All Master Valirion did was smile back at him with a hint of mockery, as if he knew exactly what Willow was trying to do, and his eyes were telling him he consciously rejected the ploy. Shit, for all he knew, youko could read minds.   
  
Water curled over his buttocks as the Master shifted his grip on him underwater, the caress of the liquid flowing over him an intimate prelude to the reality of hands on his flesh. Willow was so absorbed in the subtlety of gentle sensation, his midsection electrified, that he failed to notice the face approaching his until it was on top of him.   
  
Crimson eyes darted in startlement as Master Val's mouth closed over his. Willow held himself rigid, looking at the youko's smooth cheek and the sweep of raven hair unblinkingly. The lips worked at him, creating a pleasant friction that softened his mouth almost unwillingly and Willow's lashes trembled as his eyes slid closed. He'd never been kissed before, not really. Not like this. He meant to keep his lips closed resolutely against the intruder, but a tongue was flicking gently over the sensitized flesh. Suddenly his mouth felt like the focus of his entire body. He meant to open, to bite down and make the youko angry, to finally force him into the purpose of his presence. Instead, his lips parted and the Master's tongue flowed between them and flesh tangled ecstatically. Willow made a soft noise of assent, of need, without being aware of it.   
  
Master Val pulled him closer, water sloshing between their naked bodies. The tub was getting tepid but they'd been too busy to notice. The youko kept kissing him and Willow drank it up as if he'd never been kissed before which, of course, he hadn't. This brand of kissing was something he participated in; his tongue was drawn into Master Val's mouth and welcomed there; they shared breath and taste and soft wordless sounds of enjoyment. Willow's fingers were working into soft, wet black hair before he realized it. This was something he'd wanted through all of the pain; he'd read about it and dreamed and yearned for it and never thought it was something *he* could have.   
  
He moved closer of his own volition, and felt himself bump against muscled flesh. Willow broke away with a ragged gasp and stared at himself in the water. He had an erection. It bobbed lazily in the water, touching Val's belly, crossing with the upstanding column of the Master's flesh.   
  
Willow was surprised, frightened, and so he began to fight.   
  
"What-" Astonishment flashed over the Master's beautiful face.   
  
"Fuck!" Willow broke away and vaulted out of the tub, water slopping over the sides, not even bothering to snatch up his flimsy gray clothing or a towel or anything. He skidded out of the bathroom, braids soaked and dripping rivulets of water, darkly-tattooed body flashing through the suite like a swaying, weeping willow.   
  
That had *never* happened to him before.   
  
Sometimes, when he was alone and Master-less for awhile, he could achieve that effect by playing with himself. But he'd *never* had that sort of reaction while he was with a Master. What was this fucking youko doing to him? He didn't even know how to properly use a Key, that much was obvious, and why the HELL was Willow's body responding to the strange treatment like this?   
  
*Because Master Val makes you want it,* a little voice taunted.   
  
*Shut UP!* Willow snarled at it, schooling his face into cold, unwelcoming lines. He paused, naked and dripping water all over the expensive rug. The Master would be in here any minute now and he should have an explanation or at least a good insult to greet him with.   
  
His heart was beating a little too fast. He looked around for some clothing. It wasn't often that he felt naked, but now he truly did. He'd never *wanted* it before; he had never felt this with a Master. He had been safe and impersonal within the shell of his bitterness and ice-locked defensiveness. His mouth firmed. Not had been...*was.*   
  
Master Valirion emerged from the bathroom, towel wrapped around his waist, the damp mass of his tail clinging to one leg. He gave Willow a sheepish smile. "I didn't know how to drain the tub, so I just left it like that." And he moved over to his bags. It was unfair that someone so tall could move with fluid grace. "Damn...I was in such a hurry, I don't have any spare clothes on me at all..."   
  
That was it? No punishment?   
  
"You are the wimpiest Master I've ever had yet," the words burst out of him, hasty and bitter.   
  
The Master looked over his shoulder, finger-combing wet black hair from his face. "Are you still standing there? Have some food brought for us, okay?"   
  
Willow was becoming progressively amazed at this Master's ability to shrug his insults off so casually. He'd thought, with the wrestling session in the tub and all, that Master Valirion could indeed be provoked into violence. That didn't seem to be what the youko had in mind at all. He was becoming confused and thoroughly out of his depth - this was *not* in the script!   
  
He hesitated. "Aren't you going to rape me?"   
  
Willow didn't realize it, but there was a plaintive note in his voice. Not for wanting the rape, but for the strangeness of the situation he'd never been in before.   
  
Master Valirion turned the full force of those peculiar youko-golden eyes on him. "Willow, I am not going to rape you. Anything we do will have to be consensual - in other words, if you don't enjoy it, I'm not going to pursue it."   
  
A furrow creased Willow's brow. "That's not the way it works!" he objected, thoroughly convinced that the youko was strange in the head somehow. The idea of consensual sex was straight out of a romance novel, and if it was one thing real life had taught him, it was that real sex was like no romance novel.   
  
Master Val looked troubled, opened his mouth, and was interrupted by a knock on the panel. They both glanced at the door, startled. Willow hadn't put in the order for food yet.   
  
"Well?" the Master said after a long pause, then gave him an inscrutable smile. "Go ahead and see who it is."   
  
"I can't," Willow snapped. "You're the one with the Key."   
  
Master Val's surprise showed in his face. "I see," he murmured, then snagged a towel, knotting it loosely around his hips. It shifted alluringly over muscle and bone as the youko sauntered over to the door, Willow Key in his fingers. He unlocked the door as Willow turned away, gathering his control and moving to the chest-of-drawers for another outfit. What he'd been wearing was surely soaked on the bathroom floor.   
  
Whatever game Master Val was playing, he had the uncomfortable feeling that the youko was in the lead.   
  
***   
  
A bright red-crowned head bobbed in startlement as the door swung open, and Kyo jumped back to avoid getting hit in the face. He went crimson to his elfin pointed ears - the other obvious evidence of his youko heritage - and bowed hastily. He had been on tiptoe, evidently to be on a level with the wooden panel set in the door.   
  
"I'm sorry it took so long, sir," Kyo murmured, gesturing to the bags piled on the floor beside him. He looked as if he was expecting to be cuffed.   
  
"Don't worry about it," Val smiled, patting him on the head. "I didn't expect you to be free right away. And I got a nice nap and a bath in the meantime."   
  
A startled amber eye peered up at him before Kyo bowed his head again.   
  
"Do you have any further use for me, sir?" the boy asked, tone less tremulous than before.   
  
"Some food would be nice," Val told him.   
  
The boy bowed more deeply and began to turn.   
  
"Wait," Val said thoughtfully, lifting a hand.   
  
Kyo paused, still not meeting his eyes. It was slightly unnerving but he supposed all servants did that around here. Mark of respect, or something pompous like that.   
  
"Look at me," Val said, voice quiet. Kyo lifted his chin, gold-topaz eyes hesitant and a touch frightened. "Kyo, do you like it here?"   
  
Kyo hesitated. His face and voice were expressionless when he answered, "It's a way to live."   
  
"You didn't answer me."   
  
Kyo maintained eye contact but his golden eyes were wavering now. He bit his lip.   
  
"You're not supposed to say you don't like it, is that it?"   
  
The red head moved in a slow nod.   
  
"What would you say," Val said very, very quietly, "if I told you I would get you out of here?"   
  
Kyo's eyes started and he bit down harder; a trace of blood appeared on the pale lower lip. "I'm supposed to tell someone you said that." He was trembling.   
  
"But?" Val prompted.   
  
Kyo's golden eyes flared. "But...but if you mean it, I'll do anything. Anything you ask."   
  
Val nodded, holding the boy's gaze. "I swear it by your full-blooded mother."   
  
Kyo bit down on his lip again, and nodded faster this time.   
  
Val smiled and patted the boy on the shoulder. "Go ahead and see about the food, would you?"   
  
Kyo nodded, dropping his eyes again. He was still trembling. As Val turned to shut the door, an uncertain tenor quavered, "Sir?"   
  
Val turned back. "Yes?"   
  
"Sir...when I went to pick up your things, someone made me tell them where you are." Kyo had lifted his eyes and met a point somewhere near Val's chin. "I - I don't know how to fight; I'm not much good for anything, so I had to tell..."   
  
Val cursed and his knuckles rammed into the unyielding wood of the door. He flinched. "Did they hurt you?"   
  
"N-not badly, sir; they knew they'd get in trouble with the Palace once they realized..."   
  
"Dammit," Val cursed. He should've known. He should have had the guy at the front desk send someone else to pick up his stuff. A kid like Kyo stood no kind of chance against Delmar's muscled thugs. Finally he realized Kyo looked like he expected to get hit and he flicked his fingers. "It's okay, Kyo, I'm not angry with you. Just get us some food, would you please?"   
  
"Uh-huh," Kyo nodded and scurried off.   
  
Val scooped up his bags and nudged the rest with a foot into the Willow suite. He sighed and shut the door, locking it again. *Morgan, sometimes you are THICK.* He could hear his twin's voice jeering at him. *Should've suspected something like this to happen, Val...you're lucky the kid wasn't badly hurt.*   
  
So now Delmar knew where he was. He turned around, hands on his hips, and adjusted the towel that was trying to escape its knot and slide down his thighs. The pale boy emerged from the bathroom, dressed once more in the skimpy gray leather, crimson eyes wary. Val sighed. He had to deal with this, too - and quicky, or *not* acting on it would make him sick.   
  
Ah, well. At least there was food coming while he could still enjoy it. 


	4. Chapter 3

  
Val could feel crimson eyes on him while they ate their mostly-silent meal. Yet every time he lifted his head to confront the stare or to ask Willow a question, the boy's pale face was turned down, attention firmly fixed on the meal at hand. Exasperated, Val continued to think and chew.  
  
What was he going to do with Willow?   
  
"You don't like me very much, do you?" Val said conversationally, reaching out to snag the bread. Willow flinched as if he expected the hand to strike him, which he probably did.   
  
"My opinion of you doesn't matter," Willow retorted, giving him a look so flatly neutral it bordered on dislike. Val could read confusion in the depths of those red eyes. "I don't understand why you're treating me like it does. I'm not your equal."   
  
"If you mean you're not youko, then I already knew that," Val told him, forking a tasty-looking mouthful of greens. "But if you mean that, as a person, you're not capable of being my equal - well, that's where you're wrong. I've never discriminated against humans." He sat back and waited for that to sink in. He'd deliberately misunderstood Willow to force him to think about a few things.   
  
"No, it's because I'm a Key!" Willow exploded. "You really are a country-boy youko, aren't you? There's no way ideals like that could survive long in the city."   
  
Val lifted a brow. Willow was too young to sound so bitter. "Don't you think life can be better than this?"   
  
Willow glared at him. "Not for me." He pushed away his plate, the discussion obviously having destroyed his appetite. "That's for romantics and dreamers. Real life is pain, and then you die."   
  
"What about love?" Val baited him. "I suppose you don't think that exists, either? But youko can't be born without love in the Bond."   
  
"If youko are so sacred and loving, then little half-breed bastards like Kyo wouldn't be born, would they?" Willow snapped.   
  
Val glared at him, heat kindling in his golden eyes. "Don't. Call him. That." He'd taken a liking to the cowed little half-youko with fiery hair. "It's not his fault he was born, and now he has to make the best of that. He'd be better off if he weren't in the Palace, though."   
  
Willow stared silently at his abandoned plate, lips compressed.   
  
"And so would you," Val added.   
  
The boy's head snapped up, thin white braids spilling over his shoulders. His eyes were startled. Obviously the thought had never entered his head, that he might ever leave the Palace. "I'll never be able to leave the Palace," he growled. There was a trace of weary despair in his voice. "I'll die here some day, and that's the only way I'll be able to leave." One slim hand rubbed absently over his arm and the dark markings of the tattoo.   
  
"Not if you had someone help you," Val said softly. He pushed aside his own plate. He could sense things building to a point where he would have to act.   
  
Awareness of the young, slender body so close to his own was pushing against all of his senses. He didn't understand why now, why Willow, but Val had been tutored on what to do in this eventuality since he was a pre-pubescent kit.   
  
"And why would you help me?" Willow growled. "Why should you give a shit? I'm just a Key, and you're just a hayseed youko passing through." His insults were getting bolder, since he'd obviously gauged it would take a lot more to get Val angry than his regular clientele.   
  
Val shifted. He was starting to feel restless; anticipation was stirring and building up inside of him. He bared his teeth slightly. "Youko are very territorial," he informed the boy. "If I claim you, I'm taking you with me."   
  
He fingered the knife on his tray. Would it be sharp enough? He was sure there were knives in the suite somewhere, for S&M purposes, but the thought of using something that had already tasted Willow's blood made him sick. He'd have to make do with this one.   
  
Willow folded his arms, leaning back away from Val. His crimson eyes were mingled now with uncertainty and confusion, partially dropping the barrier of hard offense he maintained. "Why?" he muttered. He folded his birch-pale legs under him, writhing tattoos giving the impression of moving bark. "Why would you?"   
  
Now.   
  
Val surged up from his chair in a smooth graceful lunge, a hunting motion. He'd tumbled his brothers to the floor in much the same fashion, a long time ago. This time it wasn't play; it was serious. "Because you're the one. My Bondmate." He pinned Willow to the floor with his body, grasping slim wrists in one hand and holding them to the floor. Willow had shouted hoarsely, but with the purpose of this suite, no one would come running.   
  
He settled his body firmly against Willow's, looking down into shocked crimson eyes.   
  
"So you are like all the rest," Willow muttered, turning his face away.   
  
"Not exactly," Val sighed, letting instincts come to the fore, licking Willow's cheek in a broad swipe. The boy tasted good, skin a trace of salt and musk and human and the scent of his recent meal lingering a little. Tasting Willow as he concentrated his senses only confirmed it.   
  
Willow gasped, body tightening under his. "What?" He tried to jerk his hands free.   
  
"I'm sorry about this," Val said apologetically, "but it has to be done, and once the unpleasantness is over I guarantee you'll feel very, very good."   
  
"What are you talking about?" Willow growled, still trying to jerk his hands out of Val's grasp. He struggled underneath him and Val pressed down harder.   
  
All that squirming was starting to arouse him, and it wasn't time for that yet.   
  
Val didn't know how or why, he only knew it had to be Willow. "Hold still," he murmured, "this'll hurt less if you don't struggle." And held up the knife.   
  
"What are you doing?" Willow demanded. There was no anger or revulsion in his voice, only wariness, and Val sensed even that was part of his *act.* He was saying what he was supposed to, repeating lines spoken before. He was putting up the resistance he thought was necessary to Val's enjoyment of the full purposes of this suite. But Val wasn't like his other customers, and he wasn't acting out some sado-masochistic fantasy. He wasn't enjoying this, and he only wanted to cut through the farce.   
  
Val plied the knife against himself, drawing a bright line along his arm. Scarlet welled up, shocking color against his gold-cream skin.   
  
"What are you *doing?*" Willow repeated, and this time there was a note of genuine alarm in his voice. His experience had never involved the Master hurting *himself.*   
  
Val hitched himself into straddling position, taking a stronger grip on the boy's wrists with both hands. This meant he had to drop the knife, of course, but he could pick it up later. Willow's eyes flashed crimson betrayal at him, merging in his mind with the blood that had to be spilled; he gasped and fought the urge to kiss the narrow face. Instinct was overwhelming everything else. Willow was struggling in his grip, putting up the fight expected of him, but he had no idea what this was really for. Otherwise he might be fighting a whole lot more.   
  
"I'm not enjoying this," Val gritted, "but it has to be done."   
  
Willow went motionless with surprise. He looked guarded and suspicious. "What?" This was usually the part where the Master expressed extreme enjoyment.   
  
Val took advantage of his lull to haul Willow to his feet, half-dragging, half-carrying the slight boy over to the bed. He resisted every step of the way and Val ended up making use of the chains on the bed. The blatant intended purpose of the room, reflected in its furnishings, had disgusted him. Still did. The place was crafted for S&M and he couldn't expect Willow not to act accordingly, expecting Val to have a taste for the same. Now as he fixed the chain around the writhing boy's wrists, he felt something hard and implacable that would make use of the furnishings. He was not having fun; Willow wouldn't enjoy it either, but it had to be done.   
  
He went back for the knife, tired at the jaded wariness in Willow's eyes. If he could cut through that, if he could show him... Val only hoped he was making the right decision. He rejoined the boy on the bed and unchained his arms, curling up next to him. Now Willow was thrashing quite skillfully in his grip, trying to escape. Val still didn't sense any true emotion in this resistance - except shock, perhaps, that Val had turned to this after all - but aside from that, Willow was playing his role, trying to strike Val to make him angry and hit back. The narrow face changed, reflecting surprise that he hadn't been hit or cuffed, that Val continued to restrain him passively and evade his blows.   
  
Val picked up the knife and sliced a corresponding mark on Willow's white, almost transparent skin, pallor emphasized by the bark-tattooed markings. The boy stared at the cut without emotion, then grimaced as the pain hit him.   
  
He had gone still again, watching almost in a daze as Val pressed their bloodied arms together, lacing his fingers with Willow's limp ones, holding his free arm ready in case Willow turned on him again.   
  
If there had been someone here to Witness, a father, a brother, they could have tied Val's arm to Willow's, securing the Bond and testifying later that the union had taken place. But there was no one here. Not even Kyo would have been able to tie them, since he wasn't allowed in the suite, so the scar would have to do in place of a Witness.   
  
"What are you doing..." Willow repeated a third time, but the fight had gone out of his voice. His brow furrowed. "It stings. It *burns!* What did you DO!?" His voice turned sharp; he began to struggle again, clawing at Val like a wild animal.   
  
Val grimaced too. "I'm sorry." He trapped Willow's free arm between their bodies; held the thin, lithe body close as Willow bit and convulsed to escape and shouted curses.   
  
"You fucking youko! What did you DO to me?"   
  
Willow shook like a reed; he keened at the pain eating into his arm and chasing up into his body. He didn't understand what was going on and Val had no leisure to explain. "It hurts! Stop it!" He struggled hysterically.   
  
"I can't, it's too late for that."   
  
Trapped, Willow contorted in his arms like a crazed, wounded animal. He was screaming like he was bound and determined to scream his voice gone, or maybe shout himself free. One of the advantages, Val thought, fighting grimly to maintain the embrace as the boy lashed out, of having stumbled onto a Key in possession of the S&M set. No one would come to investigate the source of the screams.   
  
At last Willow went limp against him. His face was twisted as if he might cry, but couldn't. Val knew he wouldn't. "Bastard," he breathed, eyes filled with flame-colored anger. At last, a genuine emotion.   
  
"My fathers were Bonded, actually," Val said mildly. "That insult doesn't apply to me." He wanted to stroke the tangled white braids back from the ice-pale face but knew Willow would hit him - or bite him - if he let go to do that. Then the struggle would begin all over again.   
  
"Pervert, then," Willow rejoined, starting to struggle again, his efforts half-hearted. He whimpered as it stirred up fresh fire in his arm, and his eyes hardened. "What is this, youko magic?"   
  
"Not yet," Val said. From the tingling pain that had traveled up his arm and suffused into his body, he judged the physical part was done with. Time for the next step. He opened his mind.   
  
Willow's thought slammed into him with unexpected force, and he reeled, crimson-lashed blackness pulling him out of conscious awareness. They were twined too intimately to escape.   
  
***   
  
*"You're going to be a Key, boy."*   
  
*Another voice joined the first. Darkness undulated around him, light from the door giving shape to two shadows, tall thick-bodied men. "Your slut of a mother would be proud."*   
  
*"If she had any mind left for pride," the first voice corrected. "The disease barely left her body intact, let alone her mind."*   
  
*"She tried to buy your passage out of here, boy."*   
  
*"You don't have a name anymore, boy. You're a Key now."*   
  
*The boy whimpered, pulling the coverlet tighter around his thin body. He was weak, so much weaker than before. He remembered fever dreams and a woman's frantic voice calling out and not much more. Under the covers, tucked under the pillow, was a small stuffed animal that someone had overlooked. He wasn't going to let anyone find it. It was from...was from...he didn't remember.*   
  
*But it was important to him and, unlike his name, he would never let it go.*   
  
*The first voice continued, "But you'll never leave here, boy. The Palace is your home now."*   
  
*The second voice was smug. "You'll spend the rest of your life spreading your thighs to pay for the healer who was skilled enough to save your skinny carcass from the disease."*   
  
*The disease? Was that why he couldn't remember?*   
  
*"You're going to be a whore, just like your mother."*   
  
*"More than a whore," the second voice purred. "A Key."*   
  
*The boy shrank back from the shadows and tried to remember his name.*   
  
***   
  
*So that's how they did it.* Val curled his body tightly around the boy, who had stopped resisting. His mind was full of black shadows and blood and thorns that tried to him away. Val turned aside the shadows and pulled up his best memories.   
  
*Look. See. It can be better.*   
  
***   
  
*An exasperated, warm tenor washed over the two giggling dark-haired kits, smeared liberally with mud, tails matted and clothing torn and grubby. "Must you two bring the entire outdoors back with you after it rains?" Tsuyoshi Morgan leaned against his mop, glossy black ears flattening back as he glared at the muddy tracks leading into the recently cleaned kitchen. "I suppose I shouldn't even bother cleaning on a rainy afternoon."*   
  
*"We were just playing, Outo," Valteria said innocently. "It's not my fault Valirion was klutzy enough to fall in the mud puddle."*   
  
*"And I suppose it's not your fault he dragged you right after?" a deeper voice demanded, scooping up a shrieking kit under each arm. Ahrin Morgan hefted the twins up, carrying them easily through the kitchen, nudging the door open with his toe, and dumped them into the water barrel. They squalled.*   
  
*"Thank you, love,"* Tsuyoshi's golden eyes sparkled with amusement. "If you hadn't, I would have. Keep them out there until they're clean - and then they can clean the kitchen, too."*   
  
*The golden-haired human saluted his youko mate with a fingertip-kiss. "Just make sure the other pair isn't getting into trouble. It's been quiet upstairs too long, and Arashi and Kirin are the devious sort."*   
  
*Tsuyoshi snorted, pushing back his endless fall of black hair. "Teach a youko to steal chickens, why don't you."*   
  
*The twins popped sleek wet heads out of the water barrel, splashing the back porch. "Papa! Otou! When are you going to teach us to steal things?"*   
  
*Ahrin threw his head back and laughed. "You two don't need any teaching."*   
  
***   
  
*Your life isn't real,* Willow argued in his mind, slicing at him with razor-sharp images of pain and degradation. Val almost flinched back but held firm - recoiling now would lose him the fight, and then they'd both be in serious trouble. He saw how the act of love had been twisted in Willow's world to equate with pain and suffering.   
  
*That's where you're wrong,* Val told him, mind-tone gentle. *I can't lie to you here.*   
  
A flinch. He knew it was true. *What are you doing to me?* Panic, and a hint of struggle.   
  
*If you'll let me, I'm going to love you.*   
  
***   
  
Val wasn't sure how long they lay entangled. He came up from the jumbled images of darkness and light, stroking Willow's braided head. His arm was still tingling where they were pressed together, and there was pressure now from Willow's fingers. Not much, but it was a start.   
  
The healing wasn't over - it was a *long* way from over - but it had started. Just the fact that he'd woken up meant they had Bonded successfully, and they could complete the healing process together. He'd gone so deeply into Willow's mind, but still hadn't found the boy's original name. It had been erased under the damage the fever had done to his mind, and the years of pain, the way the boy had been warped in forcing him to become a Key. He could pick his own name once they were free of this place.   
  
Val grinned wolfishly. First, though, there was the final part of the Bonding to be completed. Blood mingled, minds merged...now, bodies joined.   
  
Willow's breathing pattern had changed, even though the startling crimson eyes hadn't opened yet. He knew the boy was awake. Gently, he touched his face with one finger.   
  
One eye slitted. "Why me?" Willow asked simply, almost a whisper.   
  
"Because you're *mine,*" Val growled, with a ferocity that surprised them both. He dropped his hand to the boy's belly, rubbing in soothing circles, curling his arm around the boy's waist and hooking a leg over the slender leg beside his.   
  
"Can life...is it really like that outside?" Willow's hostility was gone and only curiosity remained. "Is it really beautiful? It feels...the way it felt in your head?"   
  
Val nodded and lowered his head. "Yes." He brushed his lips over Willow's. "I'll show you." He released the boy's hand and peeled their arms away. There was a wince from both of them as the blood that had congealed, sealing them together, was broken with a painful little jerk. Val eyed the marks. Not bad; they would heal nicely.  
  
Fascinated, he bent his head to Willow's arm, licking at the fresh blood that had welled up. He could taste both of them. Gently, he cleansed the wound, then lifted his eyes to Willow's face. The boy didn't look disgusted; on the contrary, his scarlet eyes were fixed on the sight. His expression hardened and he looked away.   
  
"I don't believe in love," Willow informed him, but the words held all the plaintiveness of the little boy Val had sensed inside his head.   
  
"All right," Val murmured, hand questing between slim pale thighs, seeking the ready heat of the boy's cock. Willow flinched, going tense beside him. How many times had that simple motion been a prelude to unloving violence? He stroked the spill of braids, hand coaxing the penis he cupped. "But I know you believe in this, so I'll show you."   
  
Willow's eyes were tightly closed and he looked like he was expecting a blow. He was. Val sucked in a breath. He *was.* Sex had never been anything more than violence to him - and once he sensed Val's arousal, he was sure the violence wasn't long after.   
  
"Willow." He gripped the boy's shoulders; waited until a sliver of crimson peered at him. "I'm not going to hurt you." He eased away and undid the ankle chains that bound the boy, looking up at him. Willow was looking disoriented as the possibility for violence retreated.   
  
The boy's gaze hardened and his mouth firmed. "What's the matter, aren't you man enough?" He struck a pose at once taunting and very, very seductive.   
  
Val's ears flattened and he struggled not to growl. This was part of the act and he knew it, but he was aroused and it was hard not to ignore a challenge to his manhood. "You'll find out what kind of man I am."   
  
Willow's expression shifted and he glimpsed fear before the expression turned sulky and challenging. Val could still smell it, though; he could feel the emotion thrumming through the new Bond and it made him sick.   
  
"No," he spoke aloud, holding out his hands placatingly. "That's not what I meant, and you know it." He concentrated on projecting soothing feelings, wistful desire, instead of inflicting his lust on the boy. No wonder he was recoiling - Val was giving him the same scent, the same feeling rather, as any of his clients.   
  
Slowly the sensation of panic subsided and Willow was looking at him merely with distrust. Val could smell the doubt on him and he gave Willow a winning smile, taking the boy's feet in his hands, nuzzling up one calf.   
  
"What are you doing?" Willow jerked in his grasp but couldn't twitch free. Part of his mind registered that what the youko was doing felt really good, and he didn't *want* to get free.   
  
"Come on," Val drawled, exploring the firm youthful muscle of those legs, an ankle in each hand, "if you don't know the answer to that, you're wasting time for us both."   
  
Willow collapsed back onto the coverlet with a quiet groan. "It feels good..."   
  
Val grinned at his victory and licked a path up Willow's inner thigh.   
  
"I can still feel you in my head," Willow tried to lift himself up. "I can still - is that supposed to..."   
  
Val silenced him by crawling up to the juncture of the boy's thighs, letting go long enough to paw aside the loincloth and take him into his mouth. Willow lapsed back with a cry, hips easing up in appreciation of the lips fastened on him so greedily. However many lovers he'd had in the past, none of them had been youko, Val thought to himself smugly. His mouth moved in long strokes over the stiffening organ, pulling back to tickle the tip with his lips, plunging down the length again rapidly as he listened to Willow cry out again above him. Willow fit perfectly into his mouth, the head of his cock sliding partially down Val's throat, but he wasn't big enough that he gave Val any trouble.   
  
Willow's pleasure was singing through him. It was blended with surprise and confusion, and over it all, the part that had linked with Val was groping towards him, forming the first tentative reciprocal link born of pure sensation.   
  
Val worked faster as he sensed Willow approaching the edge. He wanted this first time for Willow to be entirely his, without coloring the encounter with Val's needs. The boy groaned, hips thrashing under him, forcing his cock deep into Val's throat before the youko threw his arms over pale tattooed thighs. Choking was not fun.   
  
With a shudder, the boy was coming, spilling a flood of his taste onto Val's tongue. *Beautiful.* He took it all, delighted that he could take his Bonded inside him like this. Val licked the softening cock clean, rolling the thought around in his mind like the flesh beneath his tongue. *Bonded. I've finally bonded, the way Father and Otou bonded.* Willow wasn't the person he'd have expected by any stretch, but that was the point. The Bond brought together people who were perfect for each other, not necessarily people who fell in love at first sight.   
  
He lay comfortably on top of Willow, letting the boy recover his breath and wits. The sense of wonder was still filtering from Willow to Val, diffusing between them easy as sunlight.   
  
"Was that okay?" Val finally asked, rubbing a cheek against one prominent hipbone. His tail was mantling up and he wanted to mark Willow with his scent. He forced the urge down. Not quite yet.   
  
Willow shuddered. "I've never..." His voice cracked and he tried again. "I didn't know it could feel like that."   
  
"It gets even better," Val purred. He turned his attention back to the cock between Willow's thighs; it was still half-hard, reflecting Val's state of desire as well as the resiliency of youth. Gods, Val remembered being that age. He rubbed it and watched it grow under his hand. He looked up and found Willow's intense eyes on him.   
  
"What about you?" Willow asked.   
  
Val rubbed him again, enjoying the way Willow's pupils dilated; his cheeks flushed and he swallowed convulsively. "What will you let me have?"   
  
Willow stared at him. "No one's ever asked me that before."   
  
"Get used to it." Val bent and traced his tongue around the dip of his navel; Willow shuddered again. He was so sensitive to the smallest of caresses; probably because he'd never been given anything resembling a true caress before.   
  
"You can have anything." Willow's voice came out small and strangled.   
  
Val paused and looked down at the closed eyes. "Are you sure?" Eyes still closed, Willow nodded. Val hunched himself up and eased his own clothing out of the way. Willow's breathing was light and rapid. He took a hold of one slender hand and pressed it to his aching sex; Willow's fingers closed around it and moved. He no longer sensed any fear in the Bond between them. Willow was filled with curiosity and a desire to feel the way Val's mouth had felt on him again. There were only small, lingering shadows of previous masters.   
  
"Well, then," Val said, voice coming out throaty, "I want you like this." He slipped his hands under Willow's butt, lifting him up onto his thighs. The boy's eyes flew open but the hand kept moving on him, thumb smearing pre-ejaculate over the head of his cock.   
  
"You've got a lot..." Willow's voice was unsteady. He closed his eyes again and swallowed hard, trying to relax onto the coverlet.   
  
Val looked down at himself, at the place where Willow's hand kept working over him. The hand was practically drenched with pre-cum, as if he'd already had his climax even though Val knew *that* hadn't even started yet. "Oh," he nodded, "it's because I'm youko." Centuries of evolution - helped along by a few appeals to their God - with the male youko vastly outnumbering the females had allowed them to reproduce with other males, including humans. This was a side effect that made penetration easier.   
  
Willow was breathing faster. "Are you going to fuck me?"   
  
Val felt like correcting him but what they were doing was more primal than love. "Yes." He reached behind him, probing beneath his tail for the sensitive glands that were already producing scent along with his arousal. He brought back drenched fingers and ran them over Willow's lips.   
  
Scarlet eyes stared up at him and the boy gasped, hitching up in his lap, legs sprawled to either side of him. "What-" Val pushed his fingers in and Willow sucked on them, surprise melting into pleasure. "Mm..." He tried to push his hips up again, legs drawing Val in.   
  
Val couldn't wait much longer; he was throbbing to the bursting point. He covered his fingers with scent again, using the sticky fluid this time to probe at Willow's closed little pucker. The boy groaned and two fingers slid in with relative ease.   
  
"Please. Please fuck me." Willow twisted under him, his own voice surprised. Val could sense that he'd never begged for it before, not unless he was forced to beg for it. This time, it was something he wanted.   
  
Unable to resist, he drew Willow closer up his thighs, guiding his aching cock to the tight hole that would take him in and seal the Bond. Willow arched into the touch then relaxed, his red eyes fixed on Val. He watched, biting down on his lip as Val pushed into him, slow and careful. His eyes grew wider.   
  
"It doesn't hurt," Willow whispered, then his eyes slid closed as Val buried himself all the way, still moving slowly. "Oh, gods it doesn't hurt...it feels good..." His legs flexed around Val, locking him close.   
  
Val bent down and kissed his tight little nipples, licking them, rolling his hips in tight little pulses that sent fluttering shocks up both their spines. Willow's legs tightened, encouraging him. Val took that as permission and pulled out partially, making them both groan as he thrust back in.   
  
"More," Willow demanded, legs flexing rhythmically. He lifted himself up into the rocking motion of Val's hips, braids tumbling around him in lovely disarray. He had adapted quickly to this pleasure and was taking all he could. Willow laughed a peculiar laugh. "You're not going to hurt me!" He heaved himself up against Val's penetrating sex.   
  
True, Val's thrusts were hardly going to hurt after the pain the boy had received...Willow was telling him not to treat him like glass. He groaned and braced himself over the boy, giving himself leverage to lift the boy's ass higher on his thighs and pound into him.   
  
"Oh, gods..." Willow's fingers clutched at his shoulders, tearing at him with scratches he barely felt. He keened at the pleasure, lifting up to receive every slamming thrust. "Val!"   
  
*That's the first time...* Val was dazed. *He called me by name.* He bent and kissed the boy's open mouth, nearly coming right then at the frantic response, a tongue pushing against his with equal urgency. He could taste his own scent on the boy's mouth and it aroused him further, possessive lust making him shove even harder into the welcoming pliancy. Willow was sobbing now but he could feel only intense pleasure surging back and forth between their link.   
  
"Val! VAL!" Wet warmth erupted between their bodies, clamping the tight little ring in beautiful constriction around Val's hard invading sex, making him shudder and spill himself as his lips perused the mouth below him.   
  
"Gods," Val groaned, still moving in shuddering thrusts, the snug ring of muscle milking pure intensity from him. He collapsed on his Bonded, hips spasming a few times before they lay still. He kissed Willow and got a mouthful of white braids.   
  
A hard fist dented his arm. "Get off," the muffled voice reached his ears. "You're too fucking heavy to sleep on me."   
  
Val sighed and rolled to the side, bringing the boy with him. Obviously it was going to be quite some time before romance entered the relationship. The thought was muzzy and soon lost in sleep.   
  
***   
  
*I hate him,* Willow thought, eyes sealed shut, too tired to roll away from the damned youko still entangled with him. *I hate him.* His face was pressed against the youko's musky side. His name was Val. He wasn't 'the Master' anymore. It had been the most amazing thing. He had moved within Val; had felt the innermost chambers of his mind, had entered him mind and body and felt the most intense pleasure his short life had borne. That was why he hated Val.   
  
He wasn't just 'the Master' anymore, and that was the problem. That had changed the minute their minds had become so intimately entangled; more so than the way their bodies overlapped now. He hated it because Val meant this much to him, he was more than a Master, and Willow could never have *this* again. Not past the allotted month.   
  
"You bastard," he whispered, with as much venom as he could muster. Didn't he have any idea of what he'd done? Ruined him! He couldn't be anything but a Key, and now all he wanted was more.   
  
Val murmured something incoherent and shifted against him. There was a little smile on his perfect face as he turned over and nuzzled at Willow's braided head. Willow wanted to hit him. Hard.   
  
He spared a few more moments for quiet hopelessness before sleep claimed him, too. 


	5. Chapter 4

They slept deeply, brief as it was. Their dreams were a mesh of Willow's life as a Key and Val's wanderings after he'd left his parent's country estate. Every time painful experience intruded on their joint dreaming, Val countered with sun-drenched images of freedom. Willow's answering dream was the mental equivalent of a cynical snort.   
  
While swimming up from the depths of his sleep that morning, Val reached out semi-consciously for his twin. He knew that he was going to need more than just Kyo's help for what he planned.   
  
*Ria?* he called out sleepily, trying to connect with his twin's mind. If he'd simply been calling for one of his fathers or other siblings, he never would have made it - but the twin bond gave them a longer range. He boosted the strength of his call as he became more aware, and reached out again. *Valteria?*   
  
The rusty-orange strength of his twin's mind surrounded him, cementing the contact. *Val? Oi!* Wordless information passed between them. *What are you doing in Austen?*   
  
*Never mind that,* Val retorted, *how in the twenty little gods' names did you get run out of an entire province with soldiers on your heels?*   
  
Ria's contact altered, expressing embarrassment. *Skill?*   
  
*It's not your skills in question, it's your ability to restrain that libido of yours,* Val told him. He dug into his twin's mind a little, feeling token resistance, then a mental sigh. *RIA! You slept with the governor's son??*   
  
*And the governor walked in,* Ria added, registering equal parts chagrin and smugness.   
  
*You're lucky you're still alive,* Val snorted. He let a hint of his own smugness leak through. *What you really need to do is settle down and find your Bonded; then you wouldn't stumble into problems like that.*   
  
*Well I was hoping the governor's son - you're BONDED?* Ria caught on almost instantly. *Oh, ho, ho...you're in a lot more trouble than I am, twinsib...a local gangster lord is after your hide, and you've Bonded to a Key in the red-light district's Palace...let me guess, you need my help.* It ended as more or less of a statement, and not a question.   
  
Val grinned and relaxed from a tension he hadn't realized his body held. *So you'll come help.*   
  
*Are you kidding? I wouldn't miss this...we're going to make family history with this one, twinsib. I don't think anyone on either side ever managed to get away with ~human~ chattel before!* Ria sounded gleeful at the challenge.   
  
Val wordlessly protested the appellation but admitted that other humans considered Willow to be chattel, too. *How soon can you be in Austen?*   
  
*Well, they chased me past the borders, so I can be there in a few days. I think they're trying to extradite me.*   
  
*RIA!* Val blasted, a little shocked but mostly trying to stifle outright laughter.   
  
He felt his twin's mental laughter. *I think we'll both be laying low around the family estate after this one, twinsib.*   
  
They shared a moment of laughter, then a mental affirmation of the loving bonds between them. Val opened his eyes as Ria's touch left him. He felt better knowing that reinforcements were on the way. Now he'd be able to keep his promise to Kyo, and Willow would be free of this place. But maybe he should have warned his twin that Delmar Briggs would show an awful lot of interest in a youko who looked exactly like Valirion Morgan... no, Ria would realize that and take steps.   
  
*Don't teach a youko to steal chickens,* as Otou said.   
  
Willow was looking directly at him as Val focused on his external surroundings. There was an accusation in his crimson eyes.   
  
"I'm sorry," Val said contritely. "Was I too rough? I..."   
  
Willow's shoulders started shaking and Val became alarmed. The boy bent over, ropes of white braids cascading over his face.   
  
"What is it? What did I-"   
  
"Too rough?" Willow whooped. Val realized the boy was laughing. "Are you kidding? When my last Master put me in traction?"   
  
Val made a sound low in his throat and the boy stopped laughing. Then Willow blinked and he knew the boy had realized Val wasn't angry at him - probably from the clear mental picture Val was entertaining of throttling the faceless 'Master.'   
  
"You can't protect me, you know." Willow rolled away from him on the huge bed and the slim shoulders faced away, the dark willow tattoo over his back almost blotting out the slender line of the body against the white coverlet. "I'm a Key. I'm stuck here, and you..." In that moment his voice was filled with loathing.   
  
"I what?" Val pushed himself up on one elbow. "I made you realize there's more?"   
  
"Yes!" The word burst from the boy's mouth and he whirled, glaring at Val with frustration and bitter despair. "Yes, I wish I'd never met you! Because you showed me there is more, and now I have to stay here, knowing there's a better life out there and you're enjoying it and here I am, getting fucked by whatever sadistic old bastard buys my goddamned Key!"   
  
Val rocked back. "Is that what you think?" he demanded, stunned. "You think I'd do that and just leave you here?"   
  
Willow's mouth compressed and he looked away. Uncertainty resonated through the bond. Underneath that outburst of hostility, Val could feel him and knew that the boy was scared and that he'd die before begging Val to prove him wrong. But the little boy inside him wanted only that, to be shown his fears were groundless.   
  
"You don't know anything about the youko Bond, do you?" Val said with a touch of exasperation. Willow's head snapped up. It was the right approach to take - being gentle with him now would only cause more disbelief.  
  
"You think they bothered to educate me in here?" Willow answered sullenly.   
  
Val gave him a superior smirk and Willow bristled.   
  
"So tell me," Willow growled, "instead of sitting there buck naked with a silly grin on your face!"   
  
Ooh, he couldn't exactly refute that particular charge. Val sat up and crawled over the bed to his Bonded, carefully not touching him. Not yet. He knew that Willow could feel him through the link between them, and was trying to ignore it. "The Bond brings together two people who are compatible, both physically and personality-wise, regardless of species or sex. Well, except for the fact that one is a youko, of course."   
  
"Why?" Willow shifted into a cross-legged position, face neutral but his stance curious.   
  
"How did it develop?" Val hazarded the content of that 'why.' "Well, for every hundred or so youko males, there are about one or two females."   
  
Willow made a face.   
  
"You see the problem?" Val laughed. "So, we males didn't just sit around and do nothing, you can imagine. We made some appeals to our god, and with that and our own flesh-shaping magic, made some changes to male youko anatomy."   
  
Willow stared at him blankly. "So what does that mean?"   
  
"It means that male youko can sire children, or," Val paused delicately, "can bear children with a male partner of any species."   
  
"And the Bond?" Willow prompted.   
  
"Ah, yes, the Bond," Val continued, recalling his father Tsuyoshi's pedantic style of lecturing. He suppressed a chuckle and refrained from adopting the same tone. "It's our god's gift to us to ensure we find the right partner to have those children, and that any children born to us and our partner will be full youko, continuing our race."   
  
Willow stared at him for awhile.   
  
"What?" Val blinked, feeling a little nervous under that suddenly intent scrutiny.   
  
With absolutely no expression, Willow stated, "So I can get you pregnant."   
  
Val coughed. Trust Willow to strike right to the heart of the matter. "Um, yes."   
  
Willow's expression was thoughtful. "So I'd be on top..."   
  
"Do we have to go into the mechanics right now?" Val asked plaintively.   
  
"What's the point of all this?" Willow snapped suddenly, jumping off the bed. He stuffed his used clothes into a tiny laundry chute with spare, furious movements. "You want me to raise a happy family with you? I seriously doubt that'll ever happen!"   
  
"The point," Val snapped back, rising off the bed and grimacing as he noticed how sticky he was, "is that I'm not leaving you here. We are Bonded, and it's a hell of a lot more permanent than any human marriage. You may hate me for awhile, but when I leave here I'm taking you with me."   
  
Willow's laughter was sharp and peculiar. "I would hate you for leaving me here, not for taking me with you." He fell quiet suddenly and stood, eyes fixed on the carpet.   
  
"You still think I'd leave you here." Val looked at him. Willow wouldn't look back.   
  
"Real life isn't like a romance novel," Willow said softly. "And people like me weren't born to be happy."   
  
Val growled at him. "I told you I'm taking you with me, and I meant it." He sent a mental 'so there' swirling along the link to jolt against Willow's skull, not caring that it was childish, and swept into the bathroom. He felt the urge to scrub and wallow in water until he was clean.   
  
Five minutes later, Val stared at the controls for the tub, utterly defeated. He hadn't paid close enough attention yesterday when Willow had turned on the tub for him. Gods, had it only been yesterday? And now he was Bonded and his own Bonded didn't believe he not only wouldn't leave him, he *couldn't!*   
  
A pale hand reached around him and twisted dials with a deft touch, working whatever combination that caused the water to stream from the pipe, filling the tub with hot water.   
  
Val turned to meet searching crimson eyes.   
  
"If you disappoint me," Willow said slowly and matter-of-factly, "it's no more than I've been getting all my life. So I may as well go along with it, you deluded youko."   
  
He felt a surge of relief and gathered Willow into his arms. When he felt the boy move as if he'd pull away, he toppled them both into the tub.   
  
Willow could indeed squawk and splash like any normal boy his age.   
  
***   
  
For the second time in two days, Willow was held firmly against the side of a youko, tail draped possessively over his leg. He was still unwilling to believe things could be resolved for him so easily; it was more ludicrous than a heroine from one of his romances being swept away by the prince on horseback. He tangled his fingers into the black water-diffused cloud of Val's tail, tugging gently, cocking an eyebrow as Val hummed with pleasure and the tail twitched. Willow snorted. This was no prince on horseback; Val was lazing over Willow's lap like an overgrown pet.   
  
"How are you planning on getting me out of here, then?" Willow tipped his head back against the rim of the tub. Val's tail swished over his skin underwater; the youko had turned to grab the soap. Willow made his tone deliberately acidic, because he still didn't trust the strange feelings in his head. "Did you think you could waltz out of here easily with a Key wearing a full-body slave tattoo? Maybe a little more of that youko magic, and just enchant us outside of the walls?"   
  
Val frowned at him. "You're not going to make life easy for me, are you?"   
  
Willow scowled back. "Why should I?" He squirmed as the tail switched between his legs, tickling intimately, and tried not to let his expression betray enjoyment. He'd forgotten the mind-link, however, as Val (*damned youko*) laughed softly and swished it there some more.   
  
"I've already asked my twin to come to Austen to help us," Val told him, running soap-slicked hands over Willow's chest, tweaking his nipples along the way.   
  
"Oh." Willow thought about that, trying to ignore the hands moving over him. It was a lot harder to disconnect the sensation when it didn't hurt - when it made him feel so good. "I suppose that would work...once they see you leave, they won't connect my disappearance with you." Would it really work? Just the thought of leaving the Palace seemed impossible, let alone saying it.   
  
Val leaned in to lick his ear. "That's exactly what I had in mind. I just don't know how to get Kyo out, too."   
  
"Kyo?" Willow repeated, sitting up straight in Val's arms. "You're trying to free Kyo, too?" He couldn't help the scowl that tugged his lips down. For the past few years, Kyo had been his only contact with the world, aside from the soothing hands of Healers and the violence of his Masters. Kyo had always been a prelude to pain. Kyo had always wanted what he was, to be a Key, when Willow would give anything *not* to be. The stupid kit didn't realize...   
  
"I have to," Val combed his fingers through Willow's wet braids, touch coaxing. "It wasn't his fault he was born here. He's half-youko - he deserves to have a chance to see how he wants to live, free of the Palace. Just like you." He leaned over and kissed the top of Willow's head.   
  
Willow jerked, still uncomfortable with these strange displays of affection. Irritably he pushed at Val's hand, scowling as the youko laughed and nuzzled his ear.   
  
"We can worry about that later," Val breathed into his ear, following it with a wet swipe over the delicate rim. "For now, we haven't finished Bonding yet."   
  
"What?" Willow pulled away and stared at him. "But we've already done it. You mingled our blood, and we had sex, and..." His cheeks darkened.   
  
"And our minds touched," Val finished for him. He gathered Willow's water-slick body into his arms despite token resistance. "Did you think once was all it takes? Oh, no. We'd better order a large meal, because you're going to need the energy."   
  
The next forty-eight hours were full of sex. Lots of sex.   
  
Willow did, in fact, have more climaxes in two days than he had during his entire time as Palace Key.   
  
***   
  
Val was tired but very, very happy. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been quite so limply contented as he was now. Now all his fathers' laughing but lustful remarks concerning their Bond became quite clear - it was exhausting but sooo worth it. He rolled over and snagged the prone, unresisting form of Willow. It was a lot easier to cuddle him when the boy was completely worn out, Val noted - there was a lot less resistance and application of sharp elbows.   
  
"Whddy'want," Willow slurred, lips moving against his throat. The sensation stirred fresh cravings in his body but Val was too depleted to act on them; besides, they were nearing the end of the demandingly physical part of their Bonding. "Don' think I c'n get it up ag'n..."   
  
Val snorted. If they *had* to, they'd somehow find a way, he was sure. Over the past two days their bodies had been glued together in almost every conceivable position and he was positive Willow had invented a few new ones. "Nothing," he whispered, "I'm just holding you."   
  
Willow snorted, but the feeling he radiated was more along the lines of contentment he was too exhausted to resist. Buried deep beneath it was a fear that Val would go back on his word; that this feeling really wouldn't last.   
  
Val tweaked away a white braid and promised him silently that he'd show him, soon enough. "I'm going to contact Ria now," he said out loud. "He should be in Austen by now, or close enough." *If his incorrigible desire for sex hasn't gotten him into another tight spot,* he growled in his head. It would be a record even for Ria, getting run out of two provinces in as many weeks!   
  
He could feel Willow lift himself up a little as he closed his eyes and reached out for his twin. Crimson eyes regarded him with steady curiosity but no revulsion - Willow seemed to have overcome his disgust for 'youko magic' and all things youko. At least, there was no longer any stigma attached to his thoughts of youko.   
  
*Valteria, where - * He made the mind-link almost instantly and knew his twin was close. And that he was hiding in a heap of refuse. The reason followed in a flash as their contact continued. *RIA! You just couldn't resist teasing Briggs, could you?*   
  
*You know me,* came the unabashed response. *I knew he wants you, twinsib, so I just couldn't help parading the goods in front of him, then making sure he knew he couldn't have it...*   
  
*You are so...so...* Words failed him and he started laughing helplessly. More details began to flow into his head from the contact like watercolor memories - blurry, distinct from his own experience, but detailed. *Did you really plant a knife point-first in his chair?*   
  
*Shaved off some hair with that throw, too,* Ria said with a grin in his tone. *I left him counting his unborn children and the blessings that he'd still have 'em.*   
  
*You could've gotten killed,* Val said, in a tone more resigned than outraged. They were identical twins but Ria had taken more readily to their father Ahrin's martial arts teachings. Val was the better thief, though - Ria was better at sneaking into the bedroom than getting out unscathed.   
  
*But I didn't,* Ria countered firmly, ending that line of discussion, *and I'm here to help you, and I really need a hot bath and a meal...* He ended on a plaintive note.   
  
Val sighed. Things were moving a little faster than he'd planned. He had hoped he wouldn't have to encounter Delmar Briggs at all; only time would tell if Ria had scared sense into him, or antagonized him further. He hadn't planned on sneaking Willow out of the palace for at least a few more days, if not a week...to give their Bond the chance to solidify, mostly, and for Willow to trust him. And he had to think how to get Kyo out, yet...   
  
Kyo! Val sat up straight and felt Willow bump against him; the sensation was vague because his mind was elsewhere. He would send Kyo to Ria, and hopefully the half-youko would be able to hide his twin for a few days, and get him cleaned up at the very least. That would be time for Briggs to make a move if he was going to, and for the four of them to come up with an airtight plan.   
  
*Sit tight, little brother,* Val sent back to his twin. *I'm sending someone to help you out. And be civil! He's a half-youko.*   
  
*So?* Ria sent back. *Okay, I'll be here; I'm not going anywhere any time soon. What does he look like?*   
  
Val sent an impression of fiery-gold hair and shy, wary golden eyes and delicate pointed ears. He 'felt' more than 'heard' the sensation of Ria's indrawn breath.   
  
*Oh, he's...can I...*   
  
*NO!* Val blasted at Ria. *Leave him alone, little brother; he's had enough men treating him like a piece of meat without you breaking his heart.*   
  
*Why, I never...* came the wounded response.   
  
Val closed off the contact and opened his eyes. "Can you ring the bell for Kyo?" he said, tone blurry even to his own ears.   
  
One eye twitched and he saw a thin sliver of red regarding him. "You have two feet and two hands and my ass is sore," came the blunt response.   
  
Val interpreted that as 'do it yourself' and climbed out of bed, staggering over to the bell-pull. Of course, nothing guaranteed it would be Kyo - but he could ask for the half-youko once someone appeared, and he had learned from Willow that the Master had the right to request any of the servants to join him in bedsport along with his Key, no questions asked. In his case, they would only assume Val wanted one of 'his own kind.'   
  
After twenty minutes, since Val had indeed had to send someone for Kyo, the timid knock came on the door. He opened it and the red-gold head was bowed before him; Val tipped up the kit's head with one finger. "You can look at me, you know," he said kindly. The boy looked disheveled. "Did I interrupt you? I'm sorry..."   
  
"No, no," Kyo said hastily. "It was just Torrin, the clerk - he wanted..." Kyo bit his lip and wouldn't meet his eyes, even though his chin was held up by Val's finger.   
  
Val scowled. "Then I'm glad to interrupt. Are they allowed to do that to you?"   
  
Kyo's golden eyes slid every which way but his. "Any time they want. I'm just an errand boy, a novelty bedwarmer. Not even good enough to be Key," he finished bitterly.   
  
"You don't *want* to be a Key," asserted a vehement, but exhausted voice from over Val's shoulder.   
  
Kyo jumped a little. Finally he lifted his eyes to Val's. "You wanted me, sir?"   
  
Val swallowed at the poignantly timid invitation in those words. "Kyo, you're allowed to go outside the Palace if a Master orders you, right?"   
  
"Un!" The red head nodded. He shifted. "I am an errand boy, after all."   
  
Val smiled at him. "Well, this is one errand you're not exactly supposed to be running..."   
  
Kyo looked around furtively and leaned in closer. "What can I do?"   
  
"If you were to bring someone inside the Palace, would you be able to do it secretly?" Val questioned him.   
  
Kyo's eyes crinkled. "Of course! We have a lot of...um...high officials and politicians who frequent the Palace, who can't afford to be seen. It's one of my jobs to make sure their identity remains a secret."   
  
"Excellent," Val snapped his fingers. This was working out even better than he'd hoped. "Would you be able to *hide* someone in the Palace for a few days? You don't have a room of your own, do you?"   
  
Kyo shook his head, golden eyes wide and solemn, then he opened his mouth. "If..." He hesitated.   
  
"Yes?" Val prompted, as encouraging as possible.   
  
"If he *paid* for me for a few days..." Kyo continued in a soft voice, "they wouldn't care. They'd give him a room even if he was masked and cloaked the entire time, and if I stayed with him, I wouldn't have to do anything else." He bit his lip, eyes bruised.   
  
Val patted his head reassuringly, and Kyo looked up with startled eyes. "Then that's what we'll do. It's my twin brother I want you to fetch, Kyo, and he won't do anything to you." *Not unless you want him to,* Val added mentally. He pulled some money out of his packs and handed it to Kyo, vowing to extract it from his twin's hide in the near future. "Now, I'll give you directions to where Valteria is, and don't be surprised if he stinks a little..."   
  
Kyo, startlingly, giggled. "I've handled worse." He pocketed the money and scampered off.   
  
Val grinned after him. The prospect of not being molested for a few days seemed to've raised the boy's spirits. Now, as long as Ria forced himself to keep his hands off the kit...well, Val trusted his twin. Ria *would* refrain from seducing the boy, unless Kyo made it clear he wanted to be seduced. The chances of that happening were low enough that he grinned to himself, imagining his twin frustrated continually over the next few days.   
  
He turned and planted hands on his hips. "So you're too sore, are you?" he purred, stalking towards the bed.   
  
Willow slitted his eyes and glared at him. "Yes, so don't even think about it," he stated. He watched Val advance with apprehensive eyes and scooted back on the bed. "I mean it! This 'lovemaking' business is even more strenuous than S&M! You don't give me time to recover!"   
  
"I can think of a way to solve the problem," Val promised, climbing up onto the bed.   
  
"Don't," Willow moaned, huddling on the pillows. He muttered something that sounded like, "And I thought I'd die from the beatings...but never from the sex!"   
  
"I believe you expressed an interest in being top?" Val finished, pausing in an artful jumble at Willow's feet, tail tickling the boy's arches.   
  
Willow blinked and pushed tangled braids out of his face, a slow smile breaking over his elfin features. "I changed my mind," he announced, "I think I can get it up for that."   
  
Val's smile matched his Bonded's. "I thought so."   
  
***   
  
Valteria Morgan felt something heavy and wet trickle down the back of his neck. It was rain or waste matter and he really didn't want to know which, or contemplate the fact that rain didn't have as much *mass* as whatever-it-was moving over his skin. He suppressed a sigh - there would still be men out searching the streets, after the trick he'd pulled, and a noisy refuse heap would attract instant attention.   
  
Okay, perhaps he had gone a *bit* far thunking a knife into Briggs' chair close enough to almost give him the capability to join the little boy's choir. But what was he supposed to do, let the man rape him? Absolutely not! A youko rutted where he would!   
  
Not that he didn't, quite a lot...Ria suppressed a contemplative snicker. Briggs wasn't his type; he was big and on the heavy side and didn't smell any too clean. The governor's son, on the other hand... Ria distracted himself from thinking on his disgusting surroundings with those memories. That sweet, clean, pale-skinned boy's body, the angelic face with a cap of golden hair, big blue eyes that had followed him with unrecognized adoration... Then Ria had made him aware of quite a few things, and little Maho had been quite happy to cooperate.   
  
He still didn't understand why the governor had been so upset; the boy had been sixteen, after all.   
  
His slicked black ears twitched at the sound of approaching footsteps. This wasn't the brisk stride of any of the townsfolk, headed home or running late errands this rainy evening, nor was it the heavy rapid tread of Briggs' thugs on the prowl. Uncertain, light steps made their way towards the refuse heap. Valteria lay still and tried not to breathe the stench.   
  
"Sir Valteria?" a high boy's tenor broke the quiet of rain pattering over his garbage heap. "Are you..."   
  
Ria popped his head free of enshrouding refuse and shook himself vigorously. "Ah, thank the gods. I thought Val was going to leave me here forever." He tossed back wet black hair, determinedly not thinking about the source of the dampness, and glanced over at the boy who was still approaching with timid steps.   
  
Just as Valirion had presented his image in the mind-link, the gorgeous little half-youko stood before him, thin body poised, attitude hesitant. Red-gold hair spilled over his shoulders, looking like a thick pelt. His tail, if he'd had one, would be the same color but Ria didn't fault the boy for his lack - he'd met more than a few half-youko in his travels and knew how sensitive they were. He also knew, unlike his slightly-prejudiced, slightly-overbearing older twin, that a half-youko could be born with love - it just meant that their parents hadn't been Bonded. It wasn't common, but neither was it any sort of abomination.   
  
Ria tried twice before he found his voice. "Hullo," he said, deliberately keeping it casual. As if it could get less informal than meeting by a garbage heap! Oh, the kit was breathtaking - a delicate-boned face, small tapering ears with the barest hint of red-gold hair at the tips, and huge youko-gold eyes. "I'm Ria Morgan. You must be Kyo."   
  
*How old are you? Are you legal?* Ria tried to squelch his shameless thoughts, half-expecting to catch Val eavesdropping.   
  
Kyo froze as their eyes met. "You do look like Master Valirion," he whispered, golden eyes wide and achingly vulnerable. "But different. You..." His brows drew together in confusion and puzzlement.   
  
Ria grinned and stretched, shaking himself free of the remnants of his camouflage. "Well, I'm prettier than he is," he claimed outrageously, scrubbing at his golden arms with handfuls of rain. "And you don't need to call me 'sir,' kitling, I'm just Ria to you. No rank between youko."   
  
Kyo stared up at him, mouth fallen open. "B-but...but I'm not. I'm just a half-youko." There was self-loathing in his tone.   
  
Ria reached out and tweaked a pointed ear. "What was that word you used? Youko, ne? You're one of us, and if anyone denies it, I'll deck them for you." He suppressed the urge to tilt the boy's head up and kiss the invitingly open mouth; for one thing, Big Brother had warned him off, for another, he was still covered in filth.   
  
Kyo blinked several times. Slowly, an incredulous smile spread over his face. "I...I didn't think you'd have one like this, so I brought you a heavy cloak, and a mask..." He held up the dark bundle in his arms.   
  
"Thank you, Kyo," Ria shook them out, unfurling the garment over his shoulders. He shivered. "This should disguise the stink for a little while, I guess. So, we're sneaking me into the Palace?"  
  
"Yes," Kyo confirmed, clasping his bare arms. He looked cold and wet now that he was no longer clutching the heavy cloak to his chest. "Val gave me the money for you to rent a room."   
  
Ria tied the mask over his face, chuckling to himself. This was something directly out of a child's fantasy story. Sneaking into a Palace on a cold, rainy night, a gorgeous human boy trapped in a tower or reasonable facsimile thereof, another darling nubile boy just for him... Ria shook his head, wet ears flapping. Maybe his brother was right and he had to get a handle on his libido. "Lead onward to the Palace, pretty kitling."   
  
Kyo stared up at him again, then bobbed his head.   
  
"Wait," Ria stepped close to the red-haired boy, "at least let me share the cloak you were so thoughtful to bring. You can direct me just as easily with words." He draped a fold of the garment over the boy's thin shoulders.   
  
Kyo glanced up at him and away, but not before Ria saw the blush spreading over his fair skin.   
  
Hmm...Val hadn't covered the contingency that Kyo might want *him,* had he? He drew the boy close to him with an arm over his shoulders and followed the quiet but firm directions. He might be wanted in two provinces - he hadn't told Val about that *other* incident - but his prospects for the immediate future were definitely looking up.   
  
Ria sneezed explosively.   
  
Kyo looked up with wide eyes. "Are you all right?"   
  
Ria hugged the boy to his side as they walked, grinning reassurance. "I really need a hot bath, that's all," he told the boy. "Either that, or Val is saying nasty, totally untrue things about me to that Bonded of his."   
  
Kyo looked adorably confused. 


	6. Chapter 5

Boy-land. Upon entering the Palace, the first impression was that it was a true haven for beautiful boys.   
  
Surely, he had stumbled upon some form of heaven. At least, this was heaven according to one Valteria Morgan.  
  
There were pretty boys everywhere. They flooded the lobby, dressed in gauzy nothings and bells that chimed softly when they moved and most of them had all kinds of interesting fragrances, heightened by the anticipation of sex in the air. And according to Kyo, all of these were 'just errand boys' like himself. Keys were kept locked up in the suites.   
  
Be still, O beating heart!   
  
The one who was most interesting to him, however, was the boy who'd been pressed closely to his side with the enchanting, musk-sweet fragrance. Kyo smelled more like a youko than a fresh-scrubbed human boy. He was a darling, touchingly uncertain, and even his looks alone were enough to make Ria swoon. When combined with his attitude, which made him think of a broken-winged bird, he wanted to tuck Kyo under his cape and keep walking past the Palace. His twin was in a situation, though, and his help was needed.   
  
Once they were on the steps of the Palace, Kyo had extracted himself from under the wing of the dark cloak, murmuring a quiet thanks. He led Ria to the lobby desk with only a few minor distractions. First, Ria had to wrench his eyes away from the myriad pretty boys in the room. Were they *all* for sale? And if they were, how expensive were the Keys? Next, Ria found his attention locking on Kyo's bottom. The boy wore little more than a pair of nearly-translucent silk pants and a brief, brief tunic.   
  
He glided to a halt behind the boy, resisting the urge to press himself against the shapely, youthful body. How old was Kyo? His libido was shrieking, *it doesn't matter!* If Val's voice were in his head, it would be snapping, *you're not going to do anything, so why bother asking?* Ria could sense that his twin was asleep, though, which was just as well - he was positively inundated in guilty thoughts.   
  
"This Master has requested a room, and my services for the next few days," Kyo was saying in his quiet breathy voice.   
  
"You?" The blond clerk looked up from his ledger, green eyes narrowing in disbelief. He was lovely but his youthful good looks were rapidly disappearing; puberty was many, many years behind him and it was plainly evident why he was behind the desk. There was a lot of dissipation and very little character in his face. "There are dozens of little gorgeous boys in the halls, Kyo, did you bother to show him any of them? You're just trying to get out of your duties for the next few days." His voice was petulant.   
  
He might have continued but he was interrupted by a low growl, an eerie sound that prickled up hairs on the back of the neck.   
  
"What is your name?" Ria demanded.   
  
"Torrin," Kyo supplied, subdued voice infused with a note of glee.   
  
"Torrin," Ria said softly, looming over the desk. He was tall and he used the height to his advantage now; the blond had to shrink back from the desk to meet his shadowed eyes. "A petty little pencil-pusher like yourself can't understand real charm when you see it...or perhaps you spent too many years on your back to properly master the right material when it comes along."   
  
Torrin's mouth had fallen open; he shut it. He couldn't talk back but from the look on his face, he'd lost the desire. There was something about a masked, cloaked figure towering over him that made him think twice - this Master could be anyone. So no matter the insult, he had to swallow it.   
  
"Wh-which room would you like, sir?" Torrin got out at last.   
  
Ria put a hand on Kyo's shoulder, subtly prompting him.   
  
"The Birch room," Kyo said at once, picking up his cue.   
  
"The Birch-" Torrin's voice was slightly strangled. "He has the mon-I mean, I assume Sir has sufficient funds."   
  
Ria looked down at him. It was a long way down. "Of course," he replied, tone cold.   
  
"I simply need to collect a deposit, and the key to the Birch room is yours."   
  
Ria forked over the cash, wincing slightly - it was almost all of the quid Val had given him, but hey, at least it wasn't his. Otherwise he'd make sure his big bro paid him back to the last farthing. Torrin had become almost cordial at the tendering of the large sum, although his pretty softening features possessed a sneer when he looked at Kyo.   
  
As they turned to go, Ria patted Kyo's shoulder. "One moment, kitling." He turned back to the desk.   
  
Torrin was already occupied in studiously cleaning his nails. From the derogatory comments and the tension vibrating through Kyo's slender little frame, Ria had divined the nature of their relationship. Being an errand boy, and not a cash crop like one of the Keys, it was probably an accepted standard.   
  
"Torrin," Ria recalled the young man's attention.   
  
"Sir?" Torrin replied, glancing up. Something in the masked face made him freeze, green eyes going glassy.   
  
"If you lay a finger on him," Ria said pleasantly, "I'll break them all. Or if I'm feeling hungry, I'll cut them off."  
  
Torrin blinked. From the expression on his face, Ria was believed. He wouldn't be surprised if the man wet himself.   
  
He gripped Kyo's arm once he returned to his side. "Lead on, kitling."   
  
Once they were out of the lobby, moving down opulent hallways hung with expensive tapestries, Kyo spoke up. His voice was low so Ria was grateful for sharp youko hearing.   
  
"Why did you do that?"   
  
Ria glanced down at the fiery head. The heavy bangs obscured his elfin face, so his expression was hidden by bright hair. "Because he doesn't have the right to treat you badly."   
  
"The Palace says he does," Kyo replied, even softer.   
  
"The Palace is wrong," Ria said firmly. He was stricken by a sudden thought. "Unless - you wanted..." He was upset all at once, picturing Kyo actually taking *pleasure* from that repulsive little aging party-boy.   
  
"No!" Kyo cried out, horrified. "No, no! Never! I've never..." He shut up quickly.   
  
"Never enjoyed it?" Ria queried, tone on the threshold of hearing.   
  
"We shouldn't be talking like this," Kyo said helplessly. "Not in the halls."   
  
"All right." Ria smoothed a hand over his shining hair, wanting to pet him, cuddle him to his side, reassure him that it was going to be all right. If Val hadn't already thought of getting this gorgeous little kitling out of the Palace along with his Key, then Ria would make sure he did. They couldn't leave this sensitive child here.   
  
Kyo angled a puzzled golden eye at him, but continued to lead him through the halls.   
  
"How old are you?" Ria asked him. It was a harmless enough question for a public forum.   
  
"How old do you want me to be?" Kyo parried, voice suddenly seductive and lilting.   
  
"Kyo, no," Ria said, appalled, squeezing his shoulder. "Don't be like that. I don't - just be yourself, okay?"   
  
That puzzled golden eye searched his face again, then dropped. "I'm thirteen. I'll be fourteen in a few months."   
  
He looked younger than his real age; that was peculiar. Most abuse victims grew up faster than their chronological age - somehow, Kyo had weathered this place and come through intact, if fragile. Maybe there was still hope in his heart.   
  
They came to a door engraved with the relief of a birch tree, and Kyo stopped. "This is the Birch room, I guess?" Ria asked, squeezing and releasing the boy's shoulder.   
  
Kyo nodded, golden eyes solemn.   
  
Ria unlocked the door with the heavy key he'd been given. "Have you been here before?"   
  
Kyo hesitated. "Once," he replied, expression tense. If he'd been a full-blood, his ears would have laid back. As it was, the downy tips were trembling slightly as they entered the room.   
  
"Hey." Ria shut the door, and locked it from his side. "Hey, I'm not going to do anything to you. You don't have to worry about me, kitling. I'm one of the good guys."   
  
Kyo's eyes filled. "Are you and Val really going to get me out of here?" There was disbelief in his tone.   
  
Ah, good, Val had already promised him that much. "Of course," Ria said fiercely. "You think we youko go around making promises and then breaking them?"   
  
A tear slipped free, then Kyo lowered his head, flame-colored hair curtaining his face. "My mother promised that we'd be free. She said my father was going to get us all out. And now she's dead, and I've been here ever since."   
  
Ria looked at him, appalled. "What about...did you have a twin?" Full youko were always born in pairs, but half-youko weren't always the same case. Sometimes only a single kit was born; sometimes fraternal twins were born instead of identical.   
  
"I think my father got Kino out," Kyo said, biting his lip. "At least, I don't think Kino is dead. I would feel it, wouldn't I?"   
  
"Yes," Ria nodded his head firmly. He could feel his sleeping twin in the back of his head even now. It was a fuzzy sort of awareness, but there nonetheless. Damn, Val was exhausted.   
  
He took a step towards Kyo, intending to comfort him, perhaps put an arm around him and cuddle the boy, maybe allow himself to stroke the downy tips of his ears. Then he caught a whiff of his own stench and his nose wrinkled. "Augh."   
  
"What?" Kyo stared at him apprehensively, going on the alert in a second.   
  
"I stink," Ria said ruefully. "I really do."   
  
Kyo blinked up at him, then giggled with unexpected sweetness. "I'll run the bath for you, then order some food." His slender body darted from the room.   
  
Ria sighed heavily and sat on the bed. *Val, twin, how can you expect me to keep my hands off the kitling?* he asked of his sleeping sib. There was, of course, no answer.   
  
The red head poked tentatively around a white doorframe. "Your bath is ready."   
  
Ria looked up and smiled. "Okay! I'll be right there." He started stripping his filthy clothes off.   
  
*Especially when he has so much hurt that needs to be healed.*   
  
***   
  
Val's eyes popped open and the world swam into dizzy focus. Something smelled wonderful. He pushed himself up onto his elbows.   
  
"Oh, you ordered food," he mumbled, catching sight of Willow cross-legged nearby, munching on something that resembled breakfast. He tried to sit up and winced. He was sore, and had a sudden appreciation for Willow's position during the past few days. "Ugh, how do you do it?"   
  
Willow's crimson eyes glanced over him curiously, then he nodded in comprehension as the link between them made his meaning plain. "I'm used to being the bottom," he said matter-of-factly. "Compared with all of my past clients, you're a gentle ride in the park."   
  
Val grimaced at him. "That is so very romantic, I can't even begin to tell you."   
  
Willow laughed. It was the first time Val had heard the sound without any cynicism or ugliness involved. It was a sound he'd like to get used to.   
  
He rolled onto his side and crawled across the sheets to the food. Willow had considerately brought the tray over to the bed, although if that adjective were brought up, he knew the boy would deny it. Him? Considerate? About as likely as expecting sweetness and light from him!   
  
"So," Val said indistinctly as they munched on breakfast. "What do you do for fun around here?"  
  
"Fun?" Willow put his sticky roll down and his face was shuttered. "What do you mean?" He could sense there was something the boy was hiding from him.   
  
Val waved a hand, dropping crumbs everywhere. "Fun, you know, things to fill the time when you're not...ah...entertaining clients? You know, a pastime? A hobby?"   
  
Willow snorted and looked away.   
  
Val put his pastry down. "I know you do *something,* Willow, it's just a matter of time before I pester the secret out of you." He grinned at his most persistent and annoying.   
  
Willow glanced up, startled, colorless braids falling in his eyes. "I..." All of a sudden he relented. He finished his roll in a few neat bites. "All right, I do have hobbies." He gave Val another considering glance, then hopped off the bed. Then began rooting under it.   
  
"Ooh." Val was momentarily intrigued by the sight of that pale, round rear sticking out from under the bed, wiggling around with whatever vigorous exercise Willow was embarking on. He sighed and stuffed more food in his mouth. They were both depleted and needed a good, long rest - more than just a meal and a solid night's sleep - before they did any of *that* again.   
  
Besides, he intended to spend a long, long time proving to Willow that they had plenty of time for *that.*   
  
Willow emerged from under the bed, pulling a few square flat canvases with him. Val hauled himself to the edge of the bed. Paintings? Yes, they were - vibrant with color and, while somewhat shaky in the use of shading and the proportions were a little off here and there, the oil paintings were hauntingly beautiful, with a striking use of contrasting light and darkness.   
  
"They let you paint?" Val raised a black brow.   
  
"They let me paint," Willow snapped back. "I'm not a total slave here. They let me have my...amusements." The bitter tone was back.   
  
Val immediately knew it had been the wrong thing to say. "They're amazing. Do you have more?"   
  
Willow shook his head, gaze drifting down to his three canvases. "No, I just paint over the previous works."   
  
"You WHAT!?" Val said, aghast. The thought of it, paintings layered over paintings, each in this lilting, haunting style - so many paintings, lost forever - it horrified him.   
  
Willow tilted his head. "They're just paintings," he said defensively.   
  
"But they're beautiful," Val countered, thinking at the same time this was something like what Willow had done with himself. Covered up all the sensitive beauty with an outwardly cynical veneer.   
  
"Well, I'm going to have to leave them here anyway," Willow snapped, then his eyes jolted up to Val and he held his breath. One colorless lower lip was caught and frayed between pearly teeth.   
  
Val held his breath, too. He smiled slowly, like extending a tentative hand of welcome. "We can get you more canvases. And paint."   
  
Willow shoved them aside, averting his eyes. Val sensed the need in him to hurry past a sensitive spot. "I do woodcarving, too." He reached under the bed and jostled free a few ripped, battered paperbacks.   
  
"What's this?" Val snatched up a book before Willow could stop him.   
  
"Don't!" Willow growled, lunging at him.   
  
"Whoops!" Val threw himself back, somersaulting awkwardly and nearly pinching his luxuriant black tail. He kept a grip on the paperback.   
  
Willow made a noise and reached for the book again, while Val held it out of range. "Oh, I *have* to get a look at your reading material, Will."   
  
Willow blinked at him and he sensed the boy had never had a nickname before. The novelty distracted him long enough for Val to thumb through a few pages.   
  
Golden eyes blinked into stoic scarlet ones. "This is a trashy romance book," Val informed Willow, as if he wouldn't know.   
  
Willow glared at him. "Yeah, it is," he replied, sitting down cross-legged on the floor in a sulking sort of pose. "So what?"   
  
Val flicked through a few more pages, tail twitching.   
  
Willow growled something and messed around with his paintings, stacking them and then shoving them back under the bed.   
  
"Tripe," Val pronounced at last, depositing the battered book face-down on the rumpled bedsheets. "Complete and utter tripe. How do you-"   
  
Willow's face pinched. "It's romantic tripe," he replied, surly.   
  
"Romantic!" Val gave his Bonded a playful grin. "And here I thought you didn't have an ounce of it! I've been over every square inch of your body and I didn't find any romantic spots..."   
  
A grudging smile was tugging at Willow's mouth. "Well, maybe you missed a few."   
  
"Was that a joke?" Val clutched at his heart. "Did my grim little man-child Bonded actually make a joke?"   
  
"Do you want to see my woodcarvings, or not?" Willow glowered, but Val didn't sense any true displeasure.   
  
"Oh, I definitely do." Val resumed his position on the floor near the pale boy.   
  
He reached under the bed and something else fell from the secret cache. Something that definitely wasn't wood. Something that was rather brown and silky-haired and much-loved and battered, missing a beady black eye, one ear nearly torn off, stuffing oozing from a few minor wounds.   
  
Val stared at it. He bit down on his tongue. "What's his name?" he asked, fighting to keep his tone casual.   
  
The white-haired boy lowered his head and picked the stuffed animal up and murmured something.   
  
Val's big velvety ears twitched. "What did you say?"   
  
Willow looked as if his face hurt. "Pookie."   
  
"Are you serious?" Val hooted. "You have a teddy bear named Pookie?"   
  
Willow's mouth tightened and he gave Val a vicious glare. "You want to make something of it?" he snapped.   
  
Val held up his hands in a defensive position, grinning. "I think Pookie is a very nice name. Just right for a sturdy well-loved fellow like him."   
  
A pale brow twitched at that, but Willow said nothing. He stuffed the bear underneath the bed again, fingers caressing its shaggy ears, then turned a resolute crimson gaze on Val. "The bear comes with me, or I don't come at all."   
  
Nodding solemnly, Val suppressed the urge to reach out and hug Willow. Things were still too new between them to permit simple gestures of comfort, however badly needed. "I think we can manage to break out one small stuffed toy of here along with you," was all he said.   
  
After that, the boy showed him his woodcarvings. They were a little cruder than the paintings, but still showed a lot of patience and effort that he wouldn't have thought to attribute to his slight Bonded. Perhaps it was merely by virtue of being a slave held here in this lavish prison that he'd learned such patience; it didn't seem like a normal part of Willow's temperament.   
  
They finished breakfast and Willow took care of the dishes. There was a chute somewhat like the one for the laundry where a dumbwaiter resided, not large enough to carry even Willow's slight frame, but enough for a tray of dishes and cutlery.   
  
When Willow adjoined to the bathroom, Val sent his thoughts towards the lazy orange beacon of his brother's mind.   
  
*You made it here safely, I assume,* Val connected with Ria's thoughts, absorbing small details of his situation. *Bathed, ate, slept...* Suspicious, he poked around.   
  
*Yes, it's quite lovely here,* Ria answered happily, trying to keep something shielded from him. *A true boylover's heaven. There are so many pretty ones...*   
  
*RIA!* Val yelped, loud with shock. *What is Kyo doing in your bed!?*   
  
*Sleeping,* Ria said defensively, stroking a hand over the bright red head nestled on one of his thighs. *He's just sleeping, Val.*   
  
*I can see that,* Val answered dryly, *but what are you doing in bed WITH him?*   
  
*Well, there IS only one bed, twinsib,* Ria pointed out. *What kind of a place do you think this is? And I am NOT sleeping on the floor.*   
  
*All that I can understand, but why are you touching him?*   
  
*He had a nightmare.* And there was something strangely tender in his sending.   
  
Val grimaced. He had intended to keep his sex-crazy brother away from Kyo, but Kyo's own suggestion had put the two in direct contact for the next few days. He should have known Ria wouldn't be able to keep his hands off...   
  
*I am NOT going to molest him,* Ria said sharply. *He's had quite enough of that here.* That said in a growling undertone.   
  
*All right,* Val acceded. *I trust you. I think. As soon as he's awake, have him show you here - masked and cloaked.*   
  
*Yes, big brother.*   
  
That was meek enough to make him worry.   
  
When he opened his eyes, they focused lazily on Willow, standing by the bed with a strange look on his face.   
  
"Ria," he said by way of explanation.   
  
"I...know," Willow said slowly, then swallowed. "I could feel it. I think I could. In my head...a voice that sounded like yours, but different." Willow frowned, trying to analyze it.   
  
"Well, he is my brother," Val rejoined, "however I might like to deny it."   
  
Willow's brows slanted together. "Why would you want to? And I can feel that's not what you mean, anyhow." He put a hand to his temple as if discovering the mental connection for the first time. Over the past few days he had been continually astonished and sometimes irritable at feeling the link there. And sometimes, Val pondered with a sensuous smile, Willow had renewed it himself, unconsciously but voluntarily.   
  
"We tease each other," Val replied. "We're brothers. That's what we do. We don't mean any of it, really, and there's affection in it. It's a way of showing our feelings for each other without being terribly mushy."   
  
White brows lifted, twin silvery crescents. "Is that why you never believe me when I tell you I hate you?"   
  
Val grinned mischievously and pounced on the boy, gathering him onto the bed and into his arms. "Exactly."   
  
***   
  
Heavy red-gold lashes trembled as the half-youko's eyes slitted, a kind of prelude to consciousness. Then the boy started up from Ria's lap with a little cry of dismay, disengaging the hand that had been playing idly with thick red hair.   
  
"I'm sorry - I didn't mean to fall asleep!" Kyo cried, falling into a submissive sort of huddle on the bed.   
  
Ria was taken aback by the violent reaction to such a small thing. "Kyo - I meant for you to fall asleep; I took a good long one myself. We can't plan for anything unless we've rested properly."   
  
The tension coiled in that young face dissolved at such a laid-back reply. "You're not going to punish me?" Kyo said timidly.   
  
"You haven't done anything," Ria replied forthrightly, suppressing any number of alternate responses. *Do you want me to?* *No, but I can think of plenty of other things...* "Besides, I'm here to help Val get his Bonded out; I'm not here to take advantage of you. No matter what the setting is. And I'm not leaving unless we take you with us, too."   
  
Kyo's solemn little face lit up with a delightful smile.   
  
"Speaking of that, would you show me to Val's rooms? We should be brainstorming for this little escapade," Ria grinned wickedly. He was much anticipating this - stealing Willow out from under the Palace's nose would eclipse any of their father Tsuyoshi's thefts.   
  
The smile dimmed as if someone had thrown a switch. "Yes," Kyo nodded. Ria could read the worry in his expression.   
  
"Hey," he said, tousling the red-gold strands. "Don't worry about things. We're the best, and we were trained by the best," he said, thinking of his fathers. He bit his lip to prevent a smirk. "And the only time I get caught is when I'm in bed." Which meant, unfortunately, that Val had pegged it - he should try to stay out of Kyo's pants until they were free and clear of Austen. And Ria would try to make sure Kyo wanted to stick with him long enough for it to happen...   
  
Kyo looked up at him with wide eyes. "In...bed?"   
  
Ria grimaced, bit his tongue, and cursed his idle mouth. "Well, I have a habit of getting myself into sticky situations," he confided with a grin. "Sometimes my chosen partners are too young, or their parents are powerful and object to a dalliance with a youko, or...well, actually, most of them fall in those two categories." He gave the boy a guilty but unrepentant smile.   
  
The half-youko bit his lip, looked down at his hands, and fiddled with a lock of red-gold hair. "I suppose I don't fit in those categories?"   
  
Ria chuckled, out of startlement more than anything else. "Well, you are awfully young..." He paused, and looked at the boy. After a moment Kyo glanced up and met his eyes. A wave of color swept over his cheeks.   
  
*He wants me!* Ria's heart leapt.   
  
"But I'm not your chosen..." Kyo faltered, shut his mouth with a snap, and flushed again. "Shall I go get your cloak?"   
  
Ria looked at him. This time, he *really* looked at the half-youko, and his own reactions to him. He'd slept with a lot of younger men and boys, both human and youko and even the occasional half-youko, but he'd never reacted this strongly before. And in this case, he hadn't even slept with the man-child! Perhaps he'd been searching for his Bonded all this time, but after all this time he may have found that one...   
  
"Kyo," Ria lifted his hand, unable to let the boy go without saying anything.   
  
Kyo glanced back, ears twitching slightly. One golden eye sought his from beneath heavy bangs.  
  
What could he say? Not many of the boys he'd had before approached Kyo's type...but all of a sudden, none of that mattered. Ria was only realizing it himself. This boy, this timid half-youko, was everything and all. He was the only type Ria hadn't stumbled across, and maybe, if he was lucky, the only boy he truly wanted.   
  
"Kyo, after this...when we're out of Austen..." He stumbled. Did he even have the right to say 'we' concerning Kyo? "You and I..."   
  
"I'll get your cloak," Kyo interrupted, smiling brilliantly. He cocked his red-gold head, then added shyly, "I'd like to see what happens, when we're out of Austen." As he scurried towards the cloak, he glanced over his shoulder.   
  
"With you."   
  
Ria grinned, and he suspected the foolish expression was with him all the way to the Willow suite.   
  
***   
  
Val seized his twin in a rough hug. "Little sex fiend, you. I wasn't sure you'd make it."   
  
"You doubted it?" Ria laughed, grabbing him in a way that made Kyo's eyes go round.   
  
Willow lounged on the bed, taking neither of them seriously. He had the advantage of his Bond with Val, so he knew all their horseplay was just that. His crimson eyes were intent, though, first moving over the twins and their joyful, tactile reunion, then turning towards Kyo and scrutinizing the half-youko from head to foot.   
  
It was the first time while Willow had a Master that he had entertained visitors whose express purpose wasn't to screw and torture him into a bloody heap. Rather a nice change, he thought, and the very presence of Ria and Kyo in this suite was moving him towards an acceptance of the possibility he might finally leave the Palace after all this time.   
  
This was the first time Kyo had entered the Willow suite - actually, it was the first time he'd been in a Key suite, period. From up close, Willow decided the little half-youko didn't seem nearly so irritating and repellent. Kyo was as thin as he was, maybe a little shorter - the whole made for a slender, leggy creature with large youko-gold eyes and a wealth of silky red hair. Oh, he was pretty; there was no doubt of that. Every creature in the Palace was gorgeous or exotic in some way.   
  
What had mostly irritated him concerning Kyo, Willow decided, was the fact that Willow had been trapped here while Kyo was free to roam the Palace. What Val had made him realize (rubbed in his face, more like it) was that Kyo only had a different form of prison, and just as much abuse.   
  
"All right," Val said finally, plopping himself on the bed to the tune of soft chinking and jingling from the chains. He and Ria made identical grimaces of distaste, looked at each other, and laughed.   
  
Willow's attention had returned to the youko with those words. It perturbed him, the way he felt when he looked at Val, or when Val paid attention to him, or merely when alien thoughts brushed up against his mind, wrapping him in those unaccustomed feelings. He thought he recognized some of them from a long time ago.   
  
Val looked directly at him and gave him a deliberate wink. *Get used to it.*   
  
That was exactly it! Willow's face reddened with embarrassment or anger; he wasn't quite sure.   
  
"Have you got a plan, twinsib?" Ria asked, tone amused, dragging a stilted sofa near the bed. He had approached the bed at first, then his nostrils had flared and he had changed direction.   
  
*That's because we've been doing the deed nonstop, and the scent still clings to the mattress,* Val explained in his head. *Even though he's my brother, it's a territorial thing - he won't come near the bed because it's been marked so thoroughly.*   
  
Willow inclined his head towards the youko - his youko - and his lip curled. *Stop that!* Get out of my head, he ordered silently.   
  
"I have a tentative plan," Val replied, bright eyes twinkling at Willow. "I'm open to suggestions."   
  
Willow turned his head again and ignored him. He scrutinized Ria instead.   
  
It was strange to see a youko who resembled Val so closely, but was definitely not his Bonded. (Willow had begun to use the term very grudgingly in his own head.) Ria's face was more open and expressive, his face a trifle thinner, his hair longer - his flowed past his shoulders, while Val's was trimmed neatly to shoulder-length.   
  
Ria was patting the couch beside him in an obvious invitation. Kyo blinked, on the verge of curling his legs beneath him and sitting on the floor. He hesitated, glanced at Val and Willow, and padded over on bare feet.   
  
Willow was astounded. He'd heard the Palace gossip. Kyo made the rounds, but it was more because he was chosen than because he made any choices of his own. After awhile, Kyo learned to trade on the favors he received to survive. But none of the most clandestine gossip had ever whispered about Kyo making any voluntary reciprocation.   
  
Maybe it would take a full youko to undo the damage done to this little half.   
  
Meanwhile, Willow had sensed the surge of anger from Val. Surely Val would realize... then he heard disjointed, but clearly upset words passing from Val to someone else, and saw Ria wince.   
  
The pale boy sighed. They weren't going to go *anywhere* if the two youko, the driving force of this escape, were going to sit around and mindspeak at each other, accusing on one side, defensive on the other. He sat up, reached over, and grabbed Val's hand. *Hard.*   
  
"Ouch!" Val yelped, the force of his anger redirected from his brother. "What the hell-"   
  
"Shut up!" Willow replied, quiet but fierce. He glared over at Ria to reinforce that, but the other youko looked more bemused than angry. Kyo sat and looked hopelessly bewildered, with no idea he was the subject of a raging battle.   
  
"We're here to plan," he said acidly, "not to discuss Ria Morgan's sex life. Whether or not Kyo is a part of that is up to Kyo." He turned his head and glared at Val again; Val's expression had altered to an imitation of a landed fish.   
  
Kyo was blushing furiously.   
  
"Plus," Willow continued, tone wry, "I don't think even your brother is stupid enough to start screwing around when we have to get out of here, and soon. So can we cut through the bullshit and start planning?"   
  
"Hey!" Ria had protested faintly, but didn't refute anything.   
  
"Yes, sir," Val murmured, lifting his hand and kissing it. The mild reply would have worried him if he couldn't sense the sudden attitude change behind it.   
  
Val leaned forward and outlined his plan.   
  
Ria pointed out a few flaws and made some counter-suggestions. He had, Willow noted, curled his luxuriant black tail around Kyo's waist. It was a very possessive pose and reminded him of a few things he wanted to try; he filed it away for later reference.   
  
"That's all very well and good," Willow said at last, "but how are you two geniuses planning on getting my tattoos off? They're a full-body advertisement that I'm a slave wandering around, hoping no one notices I've gotten loose."   
  
Ria's and Val's lips curled up in identical smiles.   
  
"Didn't you tell him?" Ria said cryptically.   
  
"I did," Val replied. "At least, I know I mentioned it. He must have forgotten."   
  
Willow glared from one infuriating youko to the other, but neither seemed ready to enlighten him.   
  
***   
  
Delmar Briggs pointed a thick finger at the captain of his guards, black eyes beady with displeasure. "It's your fault Valirion Morgan slipped past your security and got into the house," he rumbled, free hand absently drifting down to adjust the metal codpiece he'd begun wearing shortly after the incident.   
  
The guard was sweating, his nondescript face pale. He'd failed his duties and Briggs might come up with any manner of punishment, the least of which would be death.   
  
"Sir, you didn't sound the alarm when he *did* get in," was all he could say, choking slightly. "We didn't realize security had been breached..."   
  
"It's your JOB to know!" Briggs roared, shaking his finger as if it were a deadly weapon. The captain certainly eyed it as if it was. Briggs' heavy face flushed slightly. "Besides, he dropped his cloak and he was wearing damned near nothing under it. How was I s'posed to know he was going to try and cut my balls off with a knife throw?"   
  
The captain had an answer to that which he prudently kept to himself. He also had his suspicions that the knife-throw had been very precisely aimed, and likewise was not going to mention it.   
  
"I'll give you one more chance," Briggs said abruptly.   
  
The captain managed to contain his quivering sigh of relief.   
  
"Find me a way into the Palace where he's hiding out. I'm going to have Morgan, whether or not he likes it," Briggs glowered, heavy face even more revolting as the fleshy lines fell into a crafty, lustful expression. "So you get me into that Palace, so that I can get him."   
  
The captain quailed. This was the form of his punishment, and it was not going to be pretty.   
  
He felt sorry for that poor bastard Morgan, when Briggs finally caught up with him. 


	7. Chapter 6

"Thanks," Ria said with a grateful smile, accepting the cup of fruit juice from Kyo's hand. He drank thirstily - he and Val had expended a lot of energy over the past few hours, and they would need to recharge before finishing the work.   
  
"Is he okay?" Kyo stole a glance over one thin shoulder at where Willow lay sprawled over Val's lap, hands clutching white-knuckled at the bedspread, a film of sweat covering his livid skin. The Key's face was contorted and they could hear his whimpering from across the room.   
  
"He'll be okay," Ria replied, brows creasing. "This is the sort of working that should be stretched out over a period of weeks, but we don't have that kind of time." He grimaced and finished his juice, then stood.   
  
Val looked up as he approached the bed, one hand smoothing back his Bonded's tangled, colorless braids. The hair was one feature of Willow's appearance they wouldn't be able to change - at least, not right away - but it wouldn't matter too much. Willow's face was flushed, screwed up in pained lines, and Val's face echoed the agony as he met his twin's eyes.   
  
"You should sleep now," Ria told his brother firmly. "Both of you, if you can get him to sleep."   
  
Willow made a sound, halfway between sob and snarl. "And you told me I'd never have to go through that kind of pain again," he gritted, looking up at Val. "It feels like you've been flaying me alive!"   
  
"Willow - I-" Val's face twisted with dismay.   
  
"Do you want to get out of the Palace?" Ria interrupted. "Because if you'd rather stay here, we can stop the working right now."   
  
"Ria!" Val growled.   
  
"Might hurt a bit more if we had to put it back on, of course," Ria continued clinically. "Which we would, if we left you here."   
  
"I get it, okay?" Willow choked, squeezing his eyes shut. He lowered his head to rest on Val's lap again. "I'm not very good with pain."   
  
*And you're HERE?* Ria nearly blurted, but kept his mouth shut. He'd said enough for tonight. He was ready for a good meal and a good long lay...oh, wait, he was supposed to be abstaining. Dammit! Well, that meant they had more time to get to know each other.   
  
"Is there any way to do this without the nerve-searing agony?" Willow croaked, opening a scarlet eye. One hand had released the coverlet and rested on Val's leg. Val's fingers crept over Willow's in the next instant.   
  
"Yes, we could knock you out," Ria said succinctly.   
  
"That's so helpful," Willow said witheringly, shutting his eye again.   
  
Val glowered at him, stroking the boy's pale braids. *What are you doing?*   
  
Ria winked at him. *Giving him something else to focus on.*   
  
*Oh.* Val glanced back down at the strained face that would have been white if his skin weren't currently a livid, raw color all over. When the skin healed, though, he would no longer be branded with the willow-bark pattern of the slave tattoo, a dark claim on his entire body. They'd put extra effort into it so that once he recovered from the working, his skin would actually be a normal color and not the albino's pale hue. If he no longer fit the description of the Willow Key, their escape would be that much easier.   
  
"Kyo," Ria called, turning from Val and his Bonded. It was time to go before they fell into some disgusting display of public affection.   
  
"Yes?" The redhead appeared at his elbow, ears perked.   
  
"I think we've done enough damage here for now," he cocked his head at the half-youko. "We should get back to the Birch room and let these two sleep." They certainly wouldn't have energy for anything else.   
  
"All right," Kyo nodded, sneaking glances at Val and Willow. His expression was indecipherable.   
  
Once they had returned to the room, Ria stretched, yawned widely, and spun around, eyeing the boy who had remained timidly near the door. "Hey, food is included with the price of the room, isn't it?" he asked hopefully.   
  
Kyo bobbed his head. "Of course." He looked at Ria shyly. "Food isn't the primary source of income for the Palace, so they don't bother charging for it."   
  
"Good!" Ria rubbed his hands together. "I'm starved...fleshworking isn't easy by any means, and removing a tattoo like Willow's is more work than I've done in weeks. *That* kind of working, at any rate." He winked at Kyo.   
  
"I'll order some food, then," the boy said. He paused halfway out the door with an apprehensive look.   
  
"And make sure anyone who tries to touch you knows that they risk *my* displeasure," Ria lifted a finger. "After all, you're busy seeing to my needs, not theirs."   
  
Kyo bowed his head. "You did pay for me," he murmured.   
  
"Hey." Ria joined him by the door, brushing thick red hair away from the small, triangular face. "What I paid for was your right not to be forced. Understand?" He tilted up the pert face and golden eyes met his with reluctance.   
  
Kyo bit his lip. "You shouldn't be so nice to me." He twisted free and disappeared out the door.   
  
Ria stared after him before shutting the door. Part of him was transfixed by the way the boy's rear and long slender legs moved in those diaphanous pants. The rest was puzzled by what he'd said - why shouldn't he be nice? Hardly anyone was nice to him; that much was clear. So why shouldn't he... Ria lapsed against the carved wood, trying to think it through. He wanted to make things better for the boy, especially once they were free of Austen.   
  
*At least leave him alone until we're out of here, otouto!*   
  
*I will, I will,* Ria thought back unrepentantly. *But every step of the way it's going to be his choice. Okay? So back off and don't give me anymore grief!*   
  
There was silence for a long moment. *All right, Ria. I trust you.*   
  
*Why, thank-*   
  
*I think,* Val concluded, and laughter swirled in the back of his head as Ria sputtered his indignant curses.   
  
When Kyo returned with a large tray, he would have eaten his meal in a corner of the room, leaving Ria at the table by himself.   
  
"What are you doing?" Ria gestured at the seat opposite him. "Don't be silly, you're eating with me."   
  
The boy dragged himself over to the table, eyes lowered. "All right," he murmured.   
  
"Kyo, what's wrong?" Ria asked outright, concerned. He brought up the words that had been troubling him. "What do you mean by 'I shouldn't be so nice to you?'"   
  
Kyo remained silent, heavy red-gold bangs fringing his eyes.   
  
"Talk to me, kiddo," Ria said. "If you don't tell me, I won't know what's wrong."   
  
"You shouldn't be so nice," Kyo whispered, "because it makes me want more." His head stayed down.   
  
That was it. Ria leaned back, expelling a breath. Kyo hadn't said he knew he couldn't have more; he expressed that in his posture, in his whole attitude. He might not expect more than kindness - he hadn't even had that much - but it didn't mean he wasn't longing for it.   
  
"What if you can have more?" Ria said slowly.   
  
"Don't," Kyo said, the word pinching off in the middle with a sob. "Please don't tease me like that; you've been so nice but I don't expect-"   
  
Ria was flabbergasted. What had brought on such a dramatic shift? Before they had left the Birch room earlier today, Kyo had been shy but smiling, accepting the hope of 'once they were free.' Now, he was close to a nervous wreck, thin shoulders shaking. Had it just been seeing Val and Willow like that? Perhaps...knowing what Willow had been before, and seeing what he was now, to Val.   
  
"I'm not teasing you!" he exclaimed. He was up out of his chair and kneeling by Kyo's side with a flick of his tail. "Kyo, I..." Ria stopped, frustrated. He'd been so confident he could handle this shy, hurt little kitling and now he was making a mess of things. He couldn't even touch the boy.   
  
"You're not," Kyo gulped, turning to look at him. Slender long-fingered hands extended, hesitantly, and Ria wrapped his own around them. Had he said that out loud? "I'm the one who's making a mess of things."   
  
"No, you're not," Ria said firmly. He tilted his head, looking up into the golden eyes very like his but larger, and full of far more hurt than he'd seen in his peaceful life. "Kyo, I'm not teasing. I don't know how to say this, but I think...well, I've been looking all this time but not really seeing...shards, not that...what I *mean* is that I've never reacted this way, not like I have with you...oh, curse it." He broke off, frustrated. The tongue that was usually so glib on so many occasions was coming to a fumbling halt.   
  
Kyo was smiling again, expression a little bewildered but definitely amused. "It's okay."   
  
"No, it's not," Ria argued, resting their joined hands on Kyo's lap. The silk of his diaphanous pants was unbelievably soft. "I want you to understand-" He stopped again, confused now. How was he supposed to explain to a half-youko who'd been locked up all his life that Ria thought *he* was his intended Bondmate?   
  
"You just did," Kyo mumbled, bangs falling in his eyes again.   
  
Ria stared at the kitling. "Now, I know I didn't say it out loud that time."   
  
"No," Kyo agreed, cringing.   
  
"I'm not going to hit you," Ria said, keeping his voice soft. "I'm just surprised! How long have you been able to hear me?"   
  
Kyo's brows drew together. "Um, since you stepped out of the garbage heap."   
  
Ria began to chuckle helplessly. "You call that love at first sight?" He kept laughing while Kyo looked on, expression confused, until tears streamed from his eyes. "I never did think it would happen that way..."   
  
"What's so funny?" Kyo asked him, tugging on one hand.   
  
"Val always told me I'd find love when I stopped looking." Ria told him, perfectly straight-faced. "I certainly wasn't looking for anything but a bath and a hot meal, after lying in that garbage for a few hours!"   
  
It surprised a laugh out of his kitling.   
  
"So, don't you get it?" Ria said earnestly, freeing one hand to brush Kyo's heavy bangs out of his eyes. He wanted to be able to see them; Kyo already had an unfair advantage, seeing his thoughts. "It means we *are* meant to be Bonded. You can't hear anyone else, can you?"   
  
"No," Kyo admitted. He whimpered. "I wouldn't want to hear anyone else. You and Val are the first men who've ever been nice to me."   
  
"You don't have to worry about that anymore," Ria soothed. "We're getting out of here. We'll go to my fathers' estate; it's a province over." That would make three provinces he'd fled in as many weeks...a record, even for him!   
  
Kyo looked at him, a hint of a smile forming. "And the Bond?"   
  
"We'll do that once we get there," Ria assured him.   
  
***   
  
"Here, you've got to eat."   
  
"Don't touch me. Everything hurts."   
  
"Now you're just being a baby," Val told him, curled up cross-legged beside the boy, who was propped against a mountain of pillows. "You've had all night to heal. When I woke up this morning, I used as much healing magic as I dared. You should *not* be in any pain." He held out a slice of bread.   
  
"All right then, everything itches," Willow told him, glancing down at his reddened skin. Tentatively he ran his hands over the livid flesh, crimson eyes incredulous.   
  
"Don't scratch it," Val warned, mouth twitching. He could feel Willow's amazement that the tattoo was completely gone. "You'd make yourself bleed, and it would be a pity after all that work!"   
  
"Callous," Willow accused, finally accepting the slice of bread. "How long until we leave?"   
  
Val considered it. "A few days," he replied. "We have to wait until your skin heals, and it's not like we're in any rush. You should be feeling better by tomorrow, or the day after at the latest. I'm not sure if we should do your eyes now, or then."   
  
"My eyes?" Willow's hands went involuntarily to his face. "What about them?"   
  
"We can either lighten the color and make them blue, or we can darken them and go to purple," Val told him. "Ria will do the delicate work - I'll have to put you under. But they'll be looking for a boy with pale skin and red eyes."   
  
Willow considered it. "Purple," he decided finally. "My...I think my mother's eyes might have been violet."   
  
Val smiled.   
  
The boy lapsed against the pillows. "I'm really going to be free, aren't I?" In spite of the hopeful words his tone was still suspicious, eyes accusing as he glared at Val.   
  
"I promised you," Val told him, leaning close and pressing a kiss to the boy's cheek.   
  
Willow winced.   
  
"Ahh, sorry," Val rubbed his head sheepishly. "I guess this means we won't be indulging our passions over the next few days?"   
  
"Don't even think it," Willow said dangerously. He snapped his teeth together.   
  
It was Val's turn to wince.   
  
***   
  
Kyo watched, holding his breath in, as the dark-haired youko leaned over the motionless Key, hands at Willow's temples. They had been like that for a long time. He was worried, and he could sense the strain rippling through Valteria's mind. It was odd to 'feel' someone else like this, but even more odd, it seemed natural and easy..   
  
"There," Ria leaned back, expelling a sigh, half-collapsing on the couch pulled up close to the bed. "Done. Took me long enough."   
  
"You're out of practice," Valirion teased his brother. Valteria made a rude gesture in response.   
  
Willow's eyes stared up sightlessly at the ceiling, a rich, unblinking violet.   
  
"You can bring him back now," Ria told the other youko, and Valirion nodded, breath hissing from between his teeth.   
  
"His skin looks good," Valteria said conversationally.   
  
Valirion nodded. "I've been using some healing, here and there. That's why I had you do his eyes."   
  
Slowly, Willow blinked. His pupils contracted as he focused on the face above him.   
  
"Welcome back, beautiful," Valirion murmured. It was a very private tone.   
  
It felt like *they* shouldn't be here. Kyo moved over to Valteria, not wanting to watch those two for too long. It made him feel strange, his throat tight, body tense with a yearning he was slowly coming to recognize as more than just lust. He touched Ria's elbow. "I'll go get some juice," he offered.   
  
Ria's brilliant smile was reward by itself. "Thank you, Kyo."   
  
He closed the door of the Willow suite behind him and sighed. He was motionless for a moment, then scurried up the hall. He wanted Valteria to look at him like that. He'd never...well, he'd never *wanted* anyone the way he wanted Valteria. He knew Ria would be gentle with him, that he would make it good, but it was more than that...after all, it wasn't sex in Valirion's eyes that made his chest feel tight and achy. It was the tenderness and intensity of emotion that he wanted. Valirion *loved* the Key.   
  
He put an order in with the kitchens for a tray of beverages and snacks. He knew that, like the last time, all three of them would be ravenous - Valirion and Valteria for the magical energy they had been expending, and Willow for the energy his body used up in coping with the sudden alterations.   
  
Willow's skin did look much better - and it wasn't nearly so pale as it had been before the youko had begun their working. It was almost like Kyo's. They would be leaving soon.   
  
He sucked in a breath. Leaving the Palace - he could hardly believe it.   
  
A tremor of fright shook him. The last time, it had cost him his entire family. His mother was dead, and he didn't know what had happened to Kino or his father. He only knew his father had been hurt, but he thought Kino had to be alive, somewhere... Maybe Valteria would help him look!   
  
He couldn't believe they were leaving, just like that...there had to be some catch; something had to go wrong. He felt it.   
  
Rough hands grabbed him from behind and Kyo squirmed, writhing eel-like from the hands of his would-be molester. *Valteria, I'm with Valteria, you can't...* "I'm with Val-" he blurted, chopping off his words when he saw who it was.   
  
It was the big fat man. The one who'd had his soldiers hold Kyo, while he pinched and slapped and threatened to take him on the table and do worse. The one who was looking for youko Valirion.   
  
Kyo shivered and backed up but the big man was quick, his thick fingers biting into Kyo's shoulders as he grabbed him.   
  
"That's exactly what I was hoping," the big man rumbled. "Now take me to the Willow Key."   
  
Kyo squirmed. "I can't," he whimpered. Hot tears welled up in the corners of his eyes and he tried to hold them back, hating his helplessness. *I can't do that to Ria! I won't lead him to Ria and his twin!*   
  
"Oh?" Beady eyes glinted down at him cruelly. "Maybe you need a little persuasion." The hands gripped him with bruising force as Briggs dragged him up the hall.   
  
"No!" Kyo squeaked, terrified. The hall was practically deserted, and he was being pushed towards a table beneath one of the large paintings. There was a *crack* and he saw stars as his cheekbone met the unyielding wooden surface.   
  
"Won't take me to Val, hmm?" Briggs growled, shaking him, pushing him up against the table and pinning him in place with broad thighs. "Want me to give you a taste of what I'm gonna give him? Worthless little half-breed." The man fumbled with his breeches.   
  
Kyo could taste something sour in his mouth. "Help," he whispered, hating himself for the weakness, cringing when Briggs shook with laughter. His pants slid down his thighs and the man pulled his erection free.   
  
"This is what I'm going to give Val when I see him," Briggs grinned, pumping it. "And since you're being so unhelpful, half-breed, you get to go first."   
  
It was huge. Kyo stared at it with the horrified fascination of a rabbit transfixed by the snake. He was going to be forced, again, and no one would do anything about it here. No one cared.   
  
No one...   
  
Ria cared!   
  
*RIA!*   
  
He didn't know if it worked that way. He could hear Valteria; he knew Ria could hear Valirion, but he didn't know if Ria could hear *him*. A heavy slap made his head rock, jerking his neck painfully.   
  
"Ria," Kyo hiccupped. Oh, please...   
  
He was wrenched around by the arms and deposited belly-down on the table. Kyo squirmed and something dripped from his upper lip. It spread scarlet blossoms over the dark wood - his nose was bleeding.   
  
"Shut up and stop squirming," Briggs muttered, punching him in the back.   
  
"Stop hurting me!" Kyo retorted, then clamped his teeth shut. As expected, Briggs cuffed the back of his head. Kyo nearly passed out. He clenched his teeth, vision wavering between gray and the dimly-lit hall.   
  
*Ria, Ria!* Kyo wept almost silently. *I don't want to do this anymore!* He didn't want to do it with anyone but Valteria; he wanted the youko to erase every other hand that had touched him, every hand but Ria's to claim him.   
  
A low growl reverberated through the hallway.   
  
Kyo looked up but saw nothing; the weight that was pressing against his backside vanished abruptly and he lurched against the table, then clung and coughed harshly. He pushed himself upright and checked; his clothing was still intact, although his vest was torn.   
  
A knife to either side of his neck, Briggs was pinned against the wall with a snarling Valteria - Ria? Yes, the hair was longer - with Ria at his throat. Kyo spared a second of bewilderment to wonder where he'd been keeping the knives; Valteria was dressed in very little.   
  
"You!" Valteria hissed, obviously recognizing the big man, whose eyes bulged at the knives so close to his skin. "I should've cut off your balls when I had them at knife-point. So you're going around molesting boys now?"   
  
"Anything to get to *you*," Briggs hissed back, face a mingled compound of loathing and lust.   
  
"You're obsessed," Valteria said, disgusted. He glanced over at Kyo, face grim. "You okay, kitling?" His eyes blazed when he spotted Kyo's bloody nose.   
  
"I'm fine," Kyo answered breathlessly and somewhat nasally as he pinched the brutalized organ to stem the flow of blood. He spoke the words Ria needed to hear. "He didn't...you got here in time."   
  
Valteria's shoulders loosened with relief. "Thank the gods for that." He pulled a knife free of the wall and traced it up Briggs' cheek. "What shall I do with him, kitling? It's up to you."   
  
"No," the denial rang out, the same voice from two throats. "It's up to *me*."   
  
Valirion stalked up the hall, eyes fixed on his would-be rapist. Kyo shivered. There was nothing forgiving in that flat gold-metal gaze.   
  
"Val?" Briggs gasped. "Two Vals..."   
  
"Aren't you lucky, Briggs? Two Val Morgans." Ria laughed mockingly. "Unlucky, I should say. You want him so badly, and you didn't even know he had a twin hanging around, ready to help him out. *I'm* the one who nearly shaved your nut-hairs, Briggs."   
  
Delmar Briggs growled and heaved against Ria's grip. The black youko snarled and shoved him up against the wall again, dagger-point a bare finger's length from the man's eye. Briggs stilled, fixated on his imminent death.  
  
"Valteria Morgan, at your service," Ria grated, in parody of an introduction. "Kyo?"   
  
Kyo hesitated. Both Valteria's and Valirion's anger was beating down around him. He had lost all interest in Briggs at the first sign of fear; the man was ready to wet himself, no danger to him anymore.   
  
"This is mine, Ria," Val said in a hard, cold tone, completely unlike the smiling youko who had been so gentle to him. "He intended on raping me."   
  
"He was *going* to rape Kyo," Ria snarled back, and for an instant Kyo caught a glimpse of two primal foxes in snappish rivalry, all instinct and very little civilization clinging to them. "I claim the right of punishment."   
  
For a moment Val was tense and savage, a grim statue carved out of darkness, then he softened and laughed. There was very little humor in the sound. "Don't you see, little brother, we're arguing about the same thing?"   
  
Ria's eyes flashed over his shoulder, hot gold. It made Kyo's mouth dry up in fright and unexpected desire. Valteria looked so scary, but at the same time he was thrilling. And he was angry because of what Briggs had been doing to him - no one had reacted like that before!   
  
"Yes," Ria nodded slowly. The twins smiled identical, feral smiles. "Yes, that's a perfect punishment."   
  
Kyo was utterly bewildered, not privy to the flash of mental communication between the twin siblings, but he was sure of one thing.   
  
Bad Things were going to happen.   
  
***   
  
Willow paced tensely back and forth, wincing now and then as his healing skin protested. He was better enough to be up and moving around, but even the lightest of silk vests like he was wearing could feel like it chafed still-raw spots. Now more than ever, he felt like he was in a cage.   
  
Val's twin Ria had erupted from the suite with barely more than a "Kyo! Trouble!" and they had stared after him, bewildered. Then Val's eyes had gone all unfocused and he shot off the bed, leaving Willow behind.   
  
Locked in.   
  
He'd almost made himself forget the sensation, being alone like this and vulnerable to whomever unlocked his door next. If not for the constant reassuring pressure of Val's mind against his, more or less, Willow could have dismissed everything that had gone before as a silly fantasy. True love couldn't happen for someone like *him*.   
  
But the impossible had happened, and he was leaving, and he was in love.   
  
*That's the first time you've admitted it, even in your thoughts,* Val's voice whispered in his head. Even caught up in his anger, racing down the hall, he had heard Willow's silent admission.  
  
*It doesn't mean you can go all mushy on me, you silly youko,* Willow snapped back. There was no edge to it, though, and they both knew it.   
  
Then Val was otherwise occupied.   
  
Through their connection he could feel Val's boiling anger and, echoed through him, the overwhelming rage of Ria. Someone had done something to Kyo...to Val...no, he'd only *intended* on doing something to Val, until the youko had made good his escape but now he was *here*... Willow pressed his hands over his ears as if he could shut out the mental babble with only that.   
  
As if in response, Val's intensity decreased.   
  
Now they were on their way back to the suite. This was the source of Willow's tension. They were so close to escape; they couldn't afford to get caught now.   
  
The door burst open and the twins dragged a man into the suite between them, identical looks of grim satisfaction on their faces. Delmar Briggs, Val's mind supplied for him, and he had come here for Val - in the process, nearly forcing Kyo.   
  
"You're not going to kill him, are you?" Kyo was inquiring anxiously. He was disheveled and bleeding. Willow stared at him for a moment, then he went to fetch a cold washcloth from the bathroom.   
  
"Pity, but no," Ria answered cheerfully.   
  
"Worse," Val said at the same time.   
  
Briggs was struggling between them as they chained him up near the bed. Ria reached around him casually and pinched something that made Briggs swear and go limp. He shouted curses, face turning purple with the effort. Willow smiled maliciously. He could try to scream the house down, if he chose; no one would come for him. At least, not until the Master checked out of the Palace. This he knew from personal experience.   
  
"What's worse than killing him?" Kyo faltered, giving Willow a timid grateful smile as he returned with the washcloth. He began to wipe the blood from his face.   
  
Willow looked up and found Val's eyes riveted on him. He couldn't look away despite rising discomfort. He thought he knew what the youko intended.   
  
"What's worse than killing him?" Val repeated softly, holding Willow's gaze.   
  
He answered promptly as Kyo continued to look puzzled. It made perfect sense, and it was a decisive way for Val to get rid of this enemy and for both youko's sense of vengeance to be appeased.   
  
"Leaving him here, in my place." 


	8. Chapter 7

Val tied the laces shut for his last pack, raked his hair back, and sighed. His belongings were small enough to fit on one horse with room for himself besides. Ria would ride double with Kyo, since he'd ditched all his belongings a province back, when he'd been found with the governor's son. Willow might be a problem...he hoped he had enough money for a packhorse, because he didn't think Willow would be capable of riding by himself. At least, not the hard riding they would have to do for the first day or two.   
  
"You're lucky you don't have much to take with us," Val said, carrying his packs to the door. "Otherwise things might get a little clumsy."   
  
There was a pang from Willow. He turned and the boy was staring at his three canvases, propped against the bed.   
  
"Oh...I'm sorry, Will," Val said awkwardly, going to kneel beside him. "We'll get you more canvas and paints. I promise."   
  
"But I'll never have these ones again," Willow said. He tilted his head, looking up at Val, milk-white braids coursing over one shoulder.   
  
Val was quiet for a moment. He put a hand on his boy's shoulder. "No," he agreed, "but you'll have the chance to make better ones."   
  
Willow nodded and let himself be drawn against Val. When he spoke up, his voice was fierce. "You put Pookie in your packs, didn't you?"   
  
"Of course," Val assured him, "and as many of the wood-carvings as I could manage."   
  
"All right, then." Willow pulled away from him and shoved the paintings under the bed, to leave in the hidden cache along with his battered old romance novels. When he turned back, his violet eyes were dry and unemotional. "I'm ready to go."   
  
Underneath, his feelings were roiling, but Val didn't contest him. Willow was trying his best, and it had been a very long time, if ever, since he'd been outside the Palace. He wanted to gather the boy into his arms, but instead settled for a brief touch to his cheek.   
  
"Are Ria and Kyo coming here first?" Willow asked, drawing on his sleeveless vest with a slight wince. His skin was still sensitive from the drastic working.   
  
"Of course; they need to check out as me," Val replied with a wink.   
  
"And him?" Willow continued, jerking his head towards a corner of the room, where Delmar Briggs sagged in his chains. It hadn't been necessary to use a gag, because he had given up trying to shout his way free.   
  
The man had screamed himself hoarse yesterday, as Ria and Val hastily applied the marks of the black full-body slave tattoo that Willow had borne. It wasn't exactly a tattoo per se, since they had changed the color of the skin pigment itself, but it had been every bit as painful. Willow had watched it all, expressionless. Kyo had asked permission to leave the room.   
  
"They're going to find out what we've done within a day," Willow predicted, as Val slipped an arm around his waist. "After the Master checks out, they always come into the suite to treat my injuries and clean up the furnishings." His eyes went flat, expression tight.   
  
"Don't worry," Val soothed him. "That's why we're slipping out first, the back way, to buy some horses and be ready once Ria and Kyo come out of the Palace. We'll be out of the city in an hour and they won't be looking for a gang of four."   
  
"I hope you're right," Willow muttered.   
  
"Of course I'm right," Val grinned, "I'm always right."   
  
"Oh, please," Willow said scornfully.   
  
"Well, I was right about you, wasn't I?" Val said, tone smug.   
  
Willow made gagging noises.   
  
"If you're wrong," Willow said presently, "we're all dead. You know that, don't you? Kyo and Ria will be accessories, they'll nail you for theft of chattel, and me..."   
  
"They won't," Val interrupted, "even if they *did* catch us - which is a moot point, since they won't - but if they did, we'd appeal. No one can just summarily execute a youko without trial; we're a protected race. And my fathers would hear of it and come and get us."   
  
"Oh," Willow said. He obviously hadn't been expecting that.   
  
"I promised you, didn't I?" Val looked at him. He touched the boy's cheek again. Willow smiled very slightly, almost grudgingly, but Val could feel his relief.   
  
"Well, we might as well have lunch," Willow told him, pulling away.   
  
Val made a face at him. "What, we don't have time for-"   
  
"Not with *that* in the room," Willow said flatly, pointing at the chained figure of Briggs. The man was awake, hatred in his eyes, curses worn out of him after hours of spewing every oath he knew. "Besides, my skin still chafes."   
  
"How about a bath?" Val's ears perked hopefully.   
  
"You're just going to have to wait, horny youko," Willow told him. But there was a barely perceptible smile on his lips. Val caught the notion from his mind that this was nothing like what the Grand and Glorious love was pictured as in his novels, but it was worlds above better.   
  
"Lunch it is," Val sighed, resigned. He found he was, indeed, starving after the feverish working he and Ria had done yesterday.   
  
When *was* Ria going to show up? He directed the thought, loudly, in his twin's direction.   
  
*Presently,* Ria answered, uncharacteristically short. Then he shut him out, saying clearly without words that he was occupied. With no erotic overtones involved.   
  
Val shrugged, flicked his tail, and moved to pester Willow. It was better than letting the boy fret himself to death from nerves.   
  
At least, that was how he rationalized it.   
  
***   
  
Ria looked down at the remains of his breakfast on the tray. It was a good thing he'd finished eating, because he had no further appetite. This was a difficult conversation.   
  
"It's not true," Ria told him, for what must have been the fourteenth time. It was hard to overcome a lifetime of being unloved. "I don't care what they told you."   
  
Kyo hunched his shoulders, red-gold hair shielding his eyes from view. "But they've been saying all my life that I'm an abomination, that no one wants me - my mother is dead, and my father must not have loved her, because I'm..." he gulped, hair shivering over his back, "I'm a half-breed, not even good enough to be a Key." Finally, it was spilling out of the boy, years of the insults and careless misuse and malicious tongues.   
  
"A half-breed, conceived outside of love, because my mother was forced..."   
  
"Nonsense," Ria said, gentle but firm. "That's a ridiculous notion that only ignorant people in a few provinces hold - including my brother. It only means your parents weren't Bonded; it doesn't mean your father didn't love your mother, or she him. Didn't you know youko females can prevent conception at will?"   
  
A golden eye peeked at him. "No."   
  
Ria shook his head. He hunkered down on the bed, brushing bangs out of the boy's eyes, meeting his gaze squarely. "Did you ever wonder why you and Kino were your mother's only children in the Palace? If she weren't able to prevent conception, she would've had more than just a single pair of kits, you know."   
  
"I just assumed..." Kyo faltered. "I mean, I thought the Palace gave her something."   
  
"No, even if they were giving her contraceptives and stopped, she'd still have to *will* herself to conceive to have any children," Ria told him. He held the shy gaze. "You, Kyo, and your brother, Kino, were very much wanted kits."   
  
A shudder went through Kyo's body. "I thought we were less than nothing."   
  
"Besides," Ria continued, still gentle, "your father came *back* for you. He was trying to get you all out, wasn't he?"   
  
A slow nod answered him, eyes dropping. Ria tipped his chin up.   
  
"He wouldn't have come back here, knowing what he was risking, if he hadn't loved your mother," Ria concluded. He sighed and threw his shoulders back. "If he'd only approached the nearest youko official, we could have gotten you all out safely."   
  
"I don't understand," Kyo's delicate face wrinkled.   
  
"It's illegal, didn't you know that?" Ria looked at him in astonishment. "No, I suppose you didn't. Austen isn't known for its legalities, only the money to be made and pleasures to be had at any price. Kyo, it's illegal to keep a youko as a slave, for any purpose. That's how we're going to get you out today."   
  
"I'm only half," Kyo protested.   
  
"Don't give me that," Ria scolded. "You're still one of us. You want to stay here and let these *humans* claim you?" He gestured around the room, indicating the Palace, with a growl. Just now he wasn't feeling particularly charitable towards humans - at least, not the ones in Austen.   
  
Kyo's mouth firmed. "No."   
  
Ria smiled at him and ruffled his hair. "Then we're ready to go." He stood up from the bed and glanced around the room - he'd come to Austen with little more than the clothes on his back, Ahrin's sword, and the money in his pocket. He threw the heavy, concealing cloak over one arm. Val would be walking out of here as the masked man, not him - he'd go out the front as Val!   
  
Kyo disposed of their breakfast dishes and stood looking at him expectantly.   
  
"That's it?" Ria said in disbelief. "You don't have anything you want to pack, kitling?"   
  
"I don't want anything from the Palace," Kyo declared, flushing with emotion. He was resolute. "When we get out of here, I'll burn the clothes I was wearing."   
  
Ria smiled his approval. A little extreme, but it was a decisive way to cut all ties to his previous life. And of course, it made it that much easier to forge the new one!   
  
"Wait...I don't suppose you have any valuables in that room of yours?" Ria speculated, gathering up his sword and pausing at the door.   
  
Kyo simply shook his head.   
  
"Ah, well," Ria sighed, then his ears twitched. "What about in here? Or the hallways? Something that would fit in Val's packs..."   
  
"Valteria," was all Kyo said, golden eyes fixed on him in plain disapproval.   
  
His ears drooped. "Well, we're already stealing," Ria rationalized, surprised at the effect Kyo's wide eyes had on him. "We may as well make a profit on it!"   
  
A fine blond brow hiked upwards.   
  
Ria chuckled. "Kitling, we're going to have to do something about that sense of ethics of yours," he promised, ruffling Kyo's head again. The boy was startled, then smiled up at him. "Let's go!"   
  
"Let's go," Kyo repeated, low and fervent.   
  
***   
  
"You fuckin' animals! You're not gonna get away with this!" Briggs was shouting, his voice raspy-hoarse, as Ria and Kyo entered the room.   
  
Val leveled a cool stare at him and the man shut up, finding himself suddenly unable to speak. "Get used to being called 'Willow' or 'slave,' Briggs," Val told him, watching the man's eyes bulge in response. It was almost comical when he launched into another tirade of curses - a soundless one.   
  
It was a bluff, really, because they would find Briggs within a day of their leaving, as Willow had said. They were quick to come and check him for damage, mostly so they could heal him up quick and sell his Key again. But it certainly was giving Briggs a scare, the thought of being a Key for the rest of his life. Willow glared at him. Men like this one had been buying his Key, for as long as he remembered. It seemed fitting that they imprison this one here, while Willow himself escaped.   
  
"Here," Kyo said, proffering a hooded silk cloak to cover him completely. "You're going out the back way with Val. The errand boy's exit." His elfin face was expressionless, his tone flat.   
  
Willow hesitated, then slipped the cloak on. He drew the hood over his distinctive ice-white braids. "I've been nasty to you," he told the other boy, searching the expressionless face.   
  
"Yes, you have," Kyo acknowledged, tilting his head. He looked wary now.   
  
"I misjudged you," Willow said abruptly. "And I...well, once we leave, I hope you can forgive, or at least forget, so we can be friends." It was almost an apology. He wanted to, but couldn't quite, say he was sorry. But he tried to put it into his eyes.   
  
Golden eyes flashed for a moment, then dropped. "You hurt me, a lot. You treated me like everyone else does but you were in the same situation."   
  
Willow's mouth was dry. "I...I know." Abruptly he was humiliated. The youko were listening, even if they were pretending not to watch or that they had keen hearing. But this was between he and Kyo, so he forced them not to matter in his own mind.   
  
"And you're asking me to forget," Kyo continued, looking at him again, puzzled and a bit angry.   
  
He was going to *have* to say it. Nothing else would make it right.   
  
"...when you've been so horrid..."   
  
"I'm sorry!" Willow blurted.   
  
Kyo blinked. "Good."   
  
Willow sighed. "I guess you hate me, then, and you can't forgive." It was only what he deserved, he supposed.   
  
Kyo's smile was unexpected and sunny. "I do forgive you," he said solemnly. "Just don't do it again, or I'll have Ria deck you."   
  
Involuntarily Willow glanced over to the black youko, long-haired twin to his Bondmate. Ria Morgan's golden eye was on him, lazy, and the man gave him the slightest of smiles. He'd do it, Willow was morbidly sure.   
  
"Are we done, then?" Val said briskly, pulling on Ria's all-encompassing black cloak.   
  
"I suppose it's too much to ask to have them kiss and make up?" Ria said hopefully.   
  
Kyo blinked wide amber eyes at him.   
  
Willow raised his brows and shrugged.   
  
Ever so slow and hesitant, like two virgins sidling up to one another after a first date, Kyo and Willow approached each other. They leaned in and Willow put a hand out for balance and then their lips were warmly together, and they were kissing.   
  
"Lovely," Ria sighed.   
  
Kyo's mouth was pliant under his. His scent was faintly musky, like the youko Willow was Bonded to. But Kyo was almost his height and their mouths meshed a little more closely, exploring the amazing contrast to their typical partners.   
  
"All right, that's enough," Val growled. "I don't want you enjoying it too much."   
  
"Stupid fox," Willow muttered, pulling away. He glanced back at Kyo's dilated gold eyes. True, it could become too much fun, and quickly. Kyo seemed made for pleasure.   
  
*And now he's Ria's,* Val said, amused, in his head. *I broke it up for his sake, not mine - did you realize Kyo hasn't even kissed my twin yet?*   
  
*It was all his idea,* Willow returned, curt.   
  
"Let's go," Val said aloud, pulling the hood over his head and picking up his packs.   
  
"Ah ah, twinsib," Ria cautioned. "I'm you, remember? Kyo and I will be carrying the packs out the front way."   
  
"Oh, yeah." Val scratched at one ear sheepishly. "I'm going to need directions."   
  
Ria looked at his twin and Willow knew there was something passing between them, the two gold-metal gazes. "I've already asked Kyo."   
  
"Got it," Val nodded, gesturing for Willow. "Are you ready?"   
  
Was he ready? His legs trembled. Could he ever be ready? He joined Val and an arm circled his shoulders, the warmth a reassurance.   
  
"You'll regret this!" Briggs shrieked hoarsely. "You'll regret the day you crossed Delmar Briggs! You'll-"   
  
"Oh, shut him up," Ria said, disgusted. Abruptly the shrieks cut off again.   
  
Val unlocked the door, hand squeezing his shoulder.   
  
And for the first time Willow could remember, he walked out the door.   
  
***   
  
Ria stepped up to the counter and rang the bell with ferocious intent.   
  
The dissipated Torrin leaned away with a wince, looking up with a chagrined expression. "I am right here, you know," he said fussily. He gaped as he took in the black fox-ears, the golden eyes, the expression of the lazy predator ready to pounce on his next snack. "Master Youko...with the Willow Key."   
  
"Good guess," Ria said nonchalantly.   
  
"Are you ready to check out, sir?" Torrin inquired meekly.   
  
Apparently the Willow Key was very expensive, Ria reflected, otherwise the snotty desk-clerk would never be half so nice.   
  
Carelessly he dropped the carved wooden key onto the counter and Torrin uttered a barely-suppressed gasp as he snatched at it. He checked it for nicks.   
  
"There is one more thing," Ria said ominously, looming over the desk. He was hugely enjoying himself.   
  
"Master Youko?" Torrin glanced up, and blanched at the feral expression that met him.   
  
"This boy," Ria gestured, and Kyo stepped up to the counter beside him. "Are you aware he's of youko blood?"  
  
If possible, Torrin went even paler. "It may...be possible," the man hedged.   
  
"Are you aware that keeping him here is ILLEGAL!?" Ria thundered, raising his voice for the first time. Conversation stopped all over the foyer.   
  
Torrin winced back, waving his hands frantically. "Sir, sir!" he gasped. "Master Youko, I'm sure you're aware many practices of the Palace are illegal...tolerated so long as everyone involved is willing to turn a blind eye on the proceedings. There is a lot of money involved." He made an attempt at an ingratiating smile.   
  
"I am not willing to turn that blind eye," Ria said savagely. He glared at the hapless man. "I'm sure the local Youko Provost, Yanagisawa, would take it as a personal offense if he discovered a boy of youko blood was being held against his will."   
  
"Provost?" Torrin squeaked, sounding as if he'd been unmanned. "Here?" He shot a venomous look at Kyo as if it were all his fault.   
  
"Of course, if the problem were to disappear," Ria said thoughtfully, drawing Kyo close to his side to make his meaning clear, "I wouldn't feel it necessary to draw Provost Yanagisawa's attention to the Palace."   
  
Torrin looked up at him helplessly. "You leave us with no choice."   
  
"No," Ria agreed, smug.   
  
"Then take him," Torrin said, struggling for a mask of indifference and failing. He glowered at Kyo, managing to convey anger and thwarted lust at the same time. "He's of no further use to us. He's only one of dozens of errand boys, at any rate."   
  
Ria stifled a snort. He knew from what he'd gleaned from Kyo's mind that the half-youko had been one of the most popular errand boys with the highest annual profit. Torrin was looking green, no doubt anticipating when he would have to explain this to his superiors.   
  
Without looking back, they walked out the front door. Now that Torrin had seen him leave, there would be no explanation when the Willow Key turned up missing.   
  
Kyo pressed against him, murmuring something almost inaudible. Ria's ears twitched, catching it. His heart sang.   
  
*"I'm yours now."*   
  
***   
  
Val was in something of a quandary.   
  
He needed to get out of the Palace with Willow, quickly and unobtrusively so no one saw the escaping Key. Unfortunately, Ria had turned over the key to the Birch room to him, so he had to take care of that, too. But every instinct in him rebelled at leaving Willow by himself for more than a few heartbeats.   
  
"I am not," Willow snapped tartly, "a baby." His fingers convulsed in Val's as if he'd jerk his hand away.   
  
"You might as well be," Val rejoined, "since you haven't ever been in the outside world. What's a good final price for a sound horse? How much is bread going for, these days? What's the difference between an honest merchant and one who's trying to cheat you? What does a pickpocket feel like when he's trying to rob you, and how do you stop him?"   
  
"All right, all right," Willow muttered, cheeks burning sullenly. "You made your point."   
  
*Did I?* Val wondered. Willow still looked resentful. Then again, he always looked resentful.   
  
*Exaggeration,* Willow claimed.   
  
"Only most of the time," Val said under his breath, tugging the boy along the wide, convoluted corridors. From Kyo's knowledge, by way of Ria, Val threaded his way through the maze easily enough. The Palace was large enough to cover a few city blocks; most of the wealth of this province and some of the neighboring ones spent time in Austen. It must have been enlarged over the years, and enlarged again, because there were definite divides between old and new, as well as the subtle difference in stonelaying technique. From time to time, their paths had crossed with scantily-clad errand boys or hooded, anonymous revelers. Val drew Willow very close to his side in those cases. The boy was enveloped head to toe in silk, but there was no being too sure - and no one would take it amiss, in this place where remaining anonymous was often the tantamount consideration.   
  
They were near the exit. Val's confusion increased. He couldn't, he absolutely could NOT, leave Willow alone while he slipped back into the maze of the Palace and made his way to the front desk, to turn in Ria's room key.   
  
"Why didn't he turn it in before he joined us this morning?" Willow inquired acidly.   
  
"He didn't think of it," Val ground his teeth. "Such a clever idea. We're so smart." He snorted, then stiffened, arm flung around Willow's slender shoulders.   
  
*What is it?* Willow wasn't above using the mind-link for seeming emergencies.   
  
*One of Briggs' men,* Val answered, mind-tone tense. *The captain, I think. Shit, what is he doing here?*   
  
*Briggs is here,* Willow spoke up. *So of course, a bully would have back-up.*   
  
"Of course," Val groaned, the sound strangled. "We have to get out of here." Forget the Birch key; it had been anonymous.   
  
No, he couldn't forget it! If he left the Birch key without checking it back in properly, its disappearance might be connected with Kyo, who had rented it. And Kyo had left with youko Valirion. And the Willow Key's disappearance could be traced to youko Valirion...   
  
"Bloody fardling hell!" he burst out.   
  
A few boys scurrying down the hall stopped, looked at him, squeaked, and hurried off. A six-foot-plus figure draped in concealing black waving its arms around was not a sight to inspire encouragement.   
  
"Let's go," Willow whispered, low and urgent.   
  
"But-"   
  
Willow tugged on his hand fiercely. *Let's GO!*   
  
"What's wrong?" Val demanded, letting himself be dragged.   
  
*That one, the one with short curly black hair, he knows me. We have to leave; I think he might have seen my face when you were indulging in theatrics.*   
  
*He couldn't possibly recognize you,* Val sent back. *Your skin is the same normal, healthy shade as Kyo's; your eyes are purple...*   
  
*My bangs are still very much white, and my facial structure is the same,* Willow snapped. There was a curl of fright in his tone. *If he goes running off to tell someone...*   
  
Val came to a standstill, jerking Willow short. He could feel furious violet eyes glaring up at him, only partially hooded by the silk robe, but ignored it. He had the germ of an idea. "Boy!" he barked peremptorily.   
  
The curly-haired errand boy halted; looked back with wide eyes.   
  
Willow froze beside him in terror.   
  
"Hand this in at the front desk," Val ordered with a touch of arrogance, tossing the Birch room's key. It made an arc through the air then smacked the boy in the chest; he clutched it and nodded.  
  
"Yes, sir!" the boy chirped, voice on the split edge of puberty.   
  
A throttled sound escaped Willow. *You're trying to kill me.*   
  
*No, if I was trying to kill you, I would've killed you with sex,* Val said cheerfully, his problem solved. *It's a much more pleasant way to die.*   
  
*Says you.*   
  
They were almost to one of the rear doors, and freedom. Val's ears twitched under the heavy ribbon he had used to mash the telltale appendages against his skull. He could hear the sounds of the street. They had to hurry - he couldn't afford to keep Ria and Kyo waiting long, if Briggs' men were out looking for him. A bully and his back-up, Willow had said. This bully's back-up could still ruin them if they didn't make good their getaway.   
  
When they stepped out onto the street, Willow flung a hand up to cover his eyes.   
  
"It's bright!" he cried, sounding stunned.   
  
Shards, he'd probably never seen daylight. "Hold onto me," Val squeezed his fingers.   
  
"I wasn't planning on letting go," Willow snapped back. The boy was clutching tightly.   
  
"We have to hurry."   
  
"Obviously."   
  
The Palace wasn't too far from a horse-merchant Val had heard of. He stripped off his cloak and the bandanna covering his ears and disposed of them; Willow remained in his robe. Since Kyo was wearing an identical silk robe, it would throw off any further inquiries. He guided Willow towards the merchant, gleefully anticipating his strategy. He might be in a hurry, but he was a youko - he had no plans of walking away cheated.   
  
*So bargain quickly,* a little voice in the back of his head urged. It sounded suspiciously like Willow.   
  
They were heading up the street when Willow clutched at his arm tightly. "What is it?" Val demanded, concerned. Had something happened to his eyes? He didn't sense pain, only startlement. No fear, so it couldn't be anyone he recognized.   
  
"Val!" Willow whispered hoarsely. "What happened to that poor man? He's horribly deformed! It looks painful!"   
  
Val looked, blinked, and started to laugh.   
  
"Willow, it's a woman."   
  
Willow blinked, too, and looked again. "No, it's not," he said in stubborn disbelief. "What are those lumps, then? They're swollen glands! Is it an allergy?"   
  
Val was choking on his own laughter. The woman in question swept past with an offended sniff, not hearing them but able with a woman's uncanny ability to determine that the youko was laughing at - or rather, because of - her. "Those are breasts," he told his boy.   
  
"No!" Willow said, appalled. "All this time I thought..." He cut himself off and made a gagging noise.   
  
Val kept walking, though he still snorted with chuckles.   
  
"That's disgusting!" Willow wailed. "How can men bring themselves to do...that...with something that looks like an overweight, ugly, middle-aged man?"   
  
"Well, they don't all look like that," Val wiped away a few tears. "Some of them are quite beautiful."   
  
"But they all have breasts," Willow rejoined, nose wrinkling.   
  
"Yes, they all have breasts," Val admitted. "Don't worry your head over it. You're not ever going to do *that* with a woman, so leave it to those who can."   
  
Willow shuddered and that spoke the rest of his opinions on that score.   
  
Val struck a decent bargain and walked away with three horses from the merchant's stall. One for himself and Willow, one for Ria and Kyo, one for the packs - he knew Willow and Kyo would never be able to ride for a full day by themselves. And when Willow's skin started to chafe, he could soothe it away more easily if he was touching him. After paying the merchant he swung Willow up onto his chosen bay's saddle as he walked the horses.   
  
Willow stared down at him with wild eyes.   
  
"You have to get used to him," Val chuckled.   
  
"I hate you," Willow snapped.   
  
Val smiled at him, a private sort of expression typically reserved for the bedroom. *Oh?*   
  
Amazingly, Willow flushed. Perhaps he could blame it on the new rawness of his skin. Then again, maybe not.   
  
"Oh, shit," Val muttered under his breath, spotting trouble in two sets of leather armor sauntering up the street. He ducked around the other side of the horses and tugged the lead bay into a brisk walk. Willow jostled in the saddle and pressed his lips together, suppressing a cry of pain.   
  
*Sorry, love. But we have to get out of here.* He shifted, one hand touching the hilt of his sword. A public brawl was no way to make an exit; he'd be jailed first, and put his twin to the trouble of getting him out. Haste and stealth were the way.   
  
He broke into a jog, forcing the horses into a jolting trot.   
  
A groan broke free of Willow before the boy bit his lips shut. "Sorry," Val muttered, picking up the pace. Not only were they running late, but Briggs' men were around. Willow would have to settle for a healing later.   
  
*And that's all you're doing later,* Willow sent wanly.   
  
Val grinned up at him, checking the progress of Briggs' guards at the same time. *If it gets us out of here, I can live with that.*   
  
***   
  
"Stop that," Ria whispered, nudging the boy's elbow.   
  
"Stop what?" Kyo blinked up at him with wide, truly innocent golden eyes.   
  
Ria put a hand on the boy's slim thigh, pushing at his nervously jiggling leg and holding it down.  
  
"Oh," Kyo said sheepishly. He crossed his legs and hitched closer to Ria on the bench. "Are you sure this is the right place to wait?"   
  
Ria glanced around. "Yes, there's the garbage heap, and Val has just that kind of sense of humor."   
  
To his credit, Kyo covered his mouth before he giggled.   
  
"Seriously, though, he is late," Ria said, squinting around. "I hope nothing..." He reached out for his twin's thoughts and his eyes widened. "Briggs!"   
  
"He escaped?" Kyo blurted, hopping off the bench and standing in front of him. He looked poised to flee.   
  
"No, but he's got back-up," Ria said grimly. He stood, too, drawing Kyo close to his side, and made a face. "We may be sorry that my distinctive looks are identical to Val's."   
  
"We can't fight!" Kyo said anxiously. "They would arrest us, and then if they found Willow..."   
  
"Why, Kyo, what makes you think I'd want to do anything like that?" Ria flashed him a grin. "We're going to run, of course. Youko may be decent at fighting, but we're masters of the cut-and-run when the occasion requires. Why do you think we make such good thieves?"   
  
Kyo blinked in surprise.   
  
"And so," Ria continued, snagging Kyo's arm to guide him down the alley, "we'll simply-"   
  
A pair of leather-armored figures blocked the end of the alley, squinting at Kyo and Ria from beneath their helms. Recognition dawned on one face. "There he is! GET HIM!"   
  
"Simply flee!" Ria yelped, hefting Kyo's slight frame in his arms and tossing the boy over his shoulder. He was wonderfully pliant in Ria's arms and adjusted immediately to the rude change in his equilibrium, clinging to Ria, not making a sound as the youko spun and dashed in the other direction.   
  
*This has become WAY too much of a habit in the past few weeks,* Ria groaned inwardly. First the harem-boy, then the governor's son, then the innkeeper's younger brother...now he was being chased out of Austen, and he wasn't even the one stealing tail, this time!   
  
*Change of plans, twinsib!* Ria sent in his brother's direction. *You'll have to catch us on the way out of town!*   
  
*Hang on,* Val's tone was abstracted, attention elsewhere. *I think we're getting close...*   
  
*I can't wait that long!*   
  
Ria sprinted through the streets, Kyo bouncing on his shoulder without complaint, spilling people and goods left and right. The outcry behind him was loud but he was more concerned with putting distance between himself and his pursuers than being unobtrusive.   
  
He was brought to a dead halt, practically burning his heels, when three more guards appeared in front, cordoning off the street. A quick glance to the sides revealed there was no way to scramble up out of safety, even if Kyo weren't burdening his shoulder.   
  
"Drop me," Kyo whispered. "I'll be okay, leave me behind and you can..."   
  
"No!" Ria vetoed him, tone absolute.   
  
"We can't fight..."   
  
The guards were closing in, fore and aft. Kyo's hands plucked anxiously at his shirt. The street was crowded and everyone was ignoring the plight of the two strangers who'd been stupid enough to cross Delmar Briggs' men.   
  
"CHIKUSHO!"   
  
Ria's hand was on the hilt of Ahrin Morgan's sword. Kyo was suddenly off his shoulder and standing beside him, both small hands bearing down on his, trying to keep the sword in its scabbard. His pointed elfin face was pleading, bangs thrown back to reveal both liquid gold eyes.   
  
"Don't," Kyo begged.   
  
Ria answered him with a growl, half-turning, eyeing the guards approaching from the left and the right. They hadn't drawn their weapons yet and if they did, Ria would be the one faulted, despite the way he was outnumbered. His lip peeled back in a snarl. He'd *kill* them.   
  
Dismayed shouts and cries reached his ears. At first he didn't associate the sound. Then,   
  
"Coming through!"   
  
A tall bay horse shouldered aside the two guards that had been pursuing Ria and Kyo. The youko had a fleeting second to register his brother astride the bay, gripping dangling reins of a dappled gray in his hand as he leaned precariously in the saddle, and the empty saddle on the other horse...   
  
Ria didn't think. Ria leapt. He scrambled onto the horse's back, cloak billowing out behind him, and kept a grip on Kyo's wrist, fingers digging into tendons as he dragged the little half into the saddle in front of him. It happened in a screaming instant and they were pounding past the other three guards, who unsheathed bright metal with surprised shouts and waved it at the disappearing horses, nothing left behind but a cloud of dust.   
  
*A little risky and high-profile, don't you think?* Ria inquired, amused, retrieving his reins as Val let them fall from his outstretched hand. They grinned into each other's eyes with matched expressions of high mischief.   
  
*I think it's just the exit we needed!* Val retorted. *Better than letting you draw in the middle of a crowded street. Besides, no one saw Willow.* He indicated the silk-swathed bundle seated in front of him in the saddle. The boy turned his head, the wind tugging his hood back from delicate features, and he looked almost as pale as he had the day before they'd removed the tattoo. He was obviously motion-sick.   
  
"What next?" Ria shouted, snaking one arm around Kyo's midsection. The boy leaned back against him, hands white-knuckled as he clung to the saddle horn.   
  
"What else?" Val shouted back, as they cantered towards the main city gate, and freedom. "Home, to Morgan Vale!"   
  
"Home," Kyo murmured, and Ria had the feeling that things had turned out very well, indeed.   
  
***   
  
Once they were well out of Austen, Val and Ria let the horses settle into a walk, for a while. It was obvious that they wouldn't be immediately pursued, or there would have been trouble before now.   
  
Val petted Willow's silk-covered thighs. "Feeling better?"   
  
"Not appreciably so," Willow muttered, but Val sensed that the nausea was gone now that they'd settled into a more sedate pace.   
  
"You're free now," Val bent his mouth to Willow's ear. "You aren't the Willow Key anymore. What's your name?"   
  
The boy scowled at the bay's ears, fingers working over the folds of his silk robe. "I don't remember my name. I told you."   
  
"Then you get to pick your own," Val told him. "If you want to be Willow, you can be Willow. But you're free and it's up to you."   
  
He was silent for so long Val thought he wasn't going to reply, even though he could feel the contemplative flow of his Bonded's thoughts.   
  
"Chance," the boy replied, with a determined lift of his chin. He craned his head, looking up, violet eyes seeking Val's golden ones. "Chance Willow Morgan." *Because I'll never be able to forget that, even if the rest of my life is free.*   
  
Val hugged him close in the saddle, feeling Chance-Willow wince, easing the pain with subtly-applied healing. He could feel the boy's thoughts and was stunned - and happy - he could make such a difference from the nasty-mouthed, sullen slave he'd first encountered.   
  
He was no longer the nameless boy, the Willow Key.   
  
He had a name, and Val had given him a second chance at life.   
  
The End

  
Talya has also written a sequel , 'Morgan Vale' which can be found [here](http://www.teleport.com:80/~smhaven/Vale01.html).


End file.
